


In Between

by Holly_chasing_Life



Series: Try Again [2]
Category: Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Amnesia, Coma, Gen, I think I kept the 'graphic' description relatively mild, M/M, Minor Character Death, Oneshot collection, Underage Drinking, but just in case...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-08-06 14:38:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holly_chasing_Life/pseuds/Holly_chasing_Life
Summary: This is a oneshot collection for any short little scenes, prompts or requests that were footnotes in 'Try Again'.If you are interested in seeing more about a specific situation I skipped over in the main story, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do! :DThis collection has it's main focus on the other character's POV, but I'll put in a few about Will and Clifford as well.If there is an update, it'll be here on Wednesdays





	1. Spaced Out for a bit there, nevermind

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> I'm happy that I got some feedback on my poll in the main story, and here is the first little Oneshot I cooked up!  
> Enjoy while you wait for the next update on 'Try Again'!
> 
> By the way, this takes place around the end of chapter 15.  
> Holly~♥

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> I accidentally deleted this chapter, so I have no idea, what the author notes said beforehand... :/
> 
> Sorry. I'll try to recreate it later ^_^'
> 
> Holly~♥

In hindsight, Clifford realizes he should have seen them coming.

Now that summer break was almost over, he couldn’t even remember when it started, just that first one.

The first real memory. With an actual concept of what happened without someone telling him about it beforehand.

 

_Soft tunes were filling the room, small hands guiding a bow over the violin strings in a familiar pattern. Then there was a sudden sharp and shrill noise._

_“Ugh! I don’t know how to play this thing!” a little boy with short raven hair stomped his feet and looked as if he might just toss the instrument across the room._

_“Now now!” The teacher chided. (Can’t recall the teachers face- not important, this is an actual memory, don’t distract yourself!)_

_“……….?” The teacher's mouth was saying something._

_(no)_

_“…….” The boy answered._

 

The first one had been surprising, and even though it was incredibly amazing to remember something on his own, it was immensely frustrating that he had let himself get caught on a random detail and broke the trance.

He wouldn’t notice until later how fitting that word was.

Thankfully, that first one had occurred in his room, where he had been practising, but the second one he had in the garden, working on the hedge facing towards the small patch of forest there. Had he been alone, he’d never have noticed, but then, it was his mother who interrupted the new memory.

 

_He was running through a dark forest._

_‘Have to find HIM.’_

_(who?)_

_‘HE took it.’ He was chasing, hiding, sneaking,_

_‘Have to get it back. Need to get it back.’ The trees are rushing past him._

_(what was taken?)_

_‘There!’ A light is shining through the trees._

“Clifford?” a hand waves past his face.

“What?!” he whirled around to face his mother.

“You’ve been staring at nothing for the past three minutes, dear. Are you alright?” she tilted her head and frowned.

“No! No. I just- I thought I saw something.”

 

He hadn’t – didn’t want Willard to find out about this. It would be unfair, since just yesterday Will had been crying his heart out about not remembering a single thing and wondering if their parents even saw them as part of the family anymore.

It had stirred at some unpleasant thoughts he had been having as well, but clearly, Will had more trouble with them. And it would be just unfairly cruel of him to basically boast about his returning memories when Will was nowhere near recalling anything.

And so far, it hadn’t even been important things, anyway. He hadn’t even bothered writing them down. (So Will wouldn’t read about them when they shared entries with each other.)

Another – the third? -  was actually caused when Annie showed him their lullaby. He had been lucky that she had bought his excuse of ‘Just thinking.’ One of these days, he would run out of excuses for the weird trances he got into when remembering.

 

_“Boys, it’s time for bed!” Annie called from down the hall. The twins giggled and ran from the bathroom towards their own bedroom, quickly snuggling into the sheets. Their mother came to give them both a kiss on the forehead before she sat down on the armchair in between their beds._

_“Can you sing us a lullaby?” Will asked._

_“Of course, dear.” She cleared her throat. “Come now my dear,” Annie looked over to Clifford with a soft smile._

_“Come wayward Souls,”_

_“My sweetest little darling,” she turned back towards Will with the same smile._

_“That wander through the darkness,” There was another voice singing in the background._

_“There is a dream that is calling your name.”_

_“There is a light for the lost and the meek.”_

_(I know that voice)_

_“Monsters and ghosts,”_

_(It’s just changing the lullaby around)_

_“Sorrow and fear,”_

_“Are easily forgotten,”_

_“Are easily forgotten,”_

_(This is the exact same song!)_

_“For you can hide in your warm little bed.”_

_“When you submit to the soil of the earth.”_

_“Sleep, now my dear,”_

_“Grow, tiny seed,”_

_“you are called to the sheets.”_

_“you are called to the trees.”_

_“Sleep, 'til the sun rises high,”_

_“Rise, 'til your leaves fill the sky,”_

_“Until your dreams fill the air in the night.”_

_“until your sighs fill the air in the night.”_

_“Rest your tired eyes,”_

_“Lift your mighty limbs,”_

_“and you’ll sleep”_

_“and give praise”_

_“through the night.”_

_“to the fire.”_

 

But really, there were memories that confused him to no end.

 

_No. Oh nononononono-_

_He’s gone._ _He’s dying. Why aren’t you helping?_

_‘Can’t move. Can’t act.’_

_No. Something is wrong._

_‘Of course, there is, your brother is dying.’_

_(What?)_

_‘No.’_

_‘………?’_

_(not again.)_

_‘……..’_

_‘……..’_

_‘………’_

**_‘Do we have a deal?‘_ **

“Helllooo!”

“Eeek!” he flinched and nearly covered himself with his cereal.

“Bro, are you okay?” Will was staring at him from behind his ruffled bangs. He never bothered to brush his hair before breakfast. Unless breakfast was really late.

“Yes, yes. Spaced out for a moment, don’t mind me.” He attempted a smile, which seemed to work better than he thought.

“Uh-huh, okay then.” Will shrugged and went back to his toast.

 

There were some that just couldn’t be real, but they still came to him during his trances, so what were those?

 

_Willard was nearby. That was really the most reassuring thing, since he was sure he would have been more scared if he were there alone. Willard’s best friend Cordy was sitting at their feet, and she was looking up at them._

_“Huh?” she suddenly sat up and looked around._

_“Where am I?”_

_‘I don’t know.’ Clifford replied and looked around. They seemed to be in the middle of a forest._

_“Hello? Is somebody there?!”_

_‘We are, Cordy!’ Will said._

_“Anybody?” Now she looked as if she was about to cry._

_‘Didn’t you hear?’ he asked. ‘We are standing right next to you!’_

_And in a moment of clarity, he realized how small she really was. And how little he could move. And then Will began to cry as well._

_“What is going on? Mammy!? Daddy!??” Cordy began to run away into the forest._

_‘No, please stay with us!’ Will screamed after her. ‘Don’t leave us!’_

_She never came back to them._

 

There were good memories too of course, but there was nothing to distinguish them from the bad or strange or downright impossible ones.

 

_He was sitting on his dad’s lap, a storybook held open in front of them both. His dad was reading to him._

_“- Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.” He paused. “Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back.” Then he slowly closed the book._

_“That was a sad story.” Clifford hummed and hugged the book close as if to give a hug to all the strange creatures that had been sad in the story._

_“It had a lot of funny words.” Will added from where he was playing with some cars on the floor of the living room._

Finding a book he liked as a kid – and still did after reading it on his own now – or a song he heard a lot, with the help of the internet, was nice and made him feel a little better. By now he had a hunch that he might be remembering dreams instead of real memories as well.

 

_He was dying. They had killed him._

_Breathe. In, Out, In, Out._

_Why did everyone want him dead?_

_First the snow._

_Then the fire._

_Then HIM._

_Now those boys._

_Everyone._

_And now he was alone._

_And now it was his turn too._

 

So this is it. He found the explanation. He was simply having a fever dream during his coma, and now he must be confusing real memories with ones he got of that dream.

He sighed and curled up under his sheets. It was night-time and the Saturday before they would start school. The orange hues of his carpet and bed sheets were enhanced by the light garland casting a soft glow from the bottom of his bed, the lantern it was curled into putting strange shadowy shapes on the walls.

He reached over to his nightstand to turn on some music on his phone. Nothing fast-paced, just some nature at night sounds.

He fell asleep soon after.

****


	2. That Punky New Kid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone wanted Dippers POV, but sadly that isn't planned for a while longer ^_^'  
> Have some Mabel instead! This oneshot can be read parallel to Chapter 17, it's just from Mabel's point of view.  
> Holly~♥

First day of school. Both the hardest and easiest day of the whole school year. So far, things had gone well, and now she only had this last class to get through.

A smile found its way on the brunette’s lips.

‘And Drawing class isn’t so bad anyways, Mrs Petermeyer is a nice lady and even lets us stay in the classroom during break.’

Due to this, the classroom was already moderately full, and Mabel was glad she had gotten the seat near the door. Even if art _was_ more fun than other classes, that didn’t mean she wanted to get stuck behind a line of students later.

She was brought out of her daydreaming when a student lingered in front of her desk. A look at his confused face confirmed that she hadn’t missed anything and he wasn’t waiting for an answer to some question she hadn’t heard.

“Don’t worry, she spends her break here.” She reassured him.

He startled and tilted his head down to face her, the motion revealing the right side of his face.

Honestly, he was pretty good looking, but the whole punk get-up kinda bummed her out. Mabel liked to think of herself as someone who would never hate someone completely, but after what happened in the past few years, she feared she may have developed some prejudices. Nothing as bad as Dipper did, but…

‘Oh dear, am I staring? He isn’t saying anything, am I creeping him out?’

“Erm, hi? Somebody home? Did my adorableness make you speechless?” she tried to dispel the tension in the air.

“Um, sorry, no.” The other teen paused. “I mean, yes, I didn’t mean to-” he frowned. “Nevermind.”

Then he moved, and it seemed as though he would go look for a seat elsewhere even though the one next to her was free. Quickly, she reached out and grabbed his soft yellow shirt.

“Woah, there, mysterious stranger, you didn’t introduce yourself!”

“Neither did you.” He smirked down at her.

‘Wowie, perhaps the punk thing isn’t that much of a deal-breaker after all!’ she thought. Then again, Dipper would probably try to kill him.

“I’m Mabel. Now you.”

“Willard. But, that’s kinda nerdy, so just Will is fine.”

“Cool, you wanna sit with me? Seat isn’t taken.” She offered.

“Sure, why not.” He shrugged and sat to her left.

Thank god, so he wasn’t weirded out. She saw him make a slight face. Or maybe he was? He turned around so she could see the side of his face that wasn’t covered by his bleached hair, so perhaps he was just annoyed by that?

“You sure you don’t have anyone else to sit with?” he grinned for just the duration of that sentence, which had been spoken in a sort of snobbish tone. Then his smile slid of his face and was replaced by a mildly surprised look. “I, I mean-” he stammered, clearly bothered by his tone. “Sorry, I just- You don’t know me. Wouldn’t you want to sit with your friends?”

‘Aww, he’s a dork! This guy's getting more and more adorable!’ she giggled.

“You such a weirdo! I just wanted to say hi! And not knowing you doesn’t matter, I can just _get_ to know you!” she grinned.

That seemed to calm him down. “If you say so.”

“So, what’s yo-“

_Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiing!_

“Everyone settle down!” Mrs Petermeyer had stood up and was going over to the open door to close it. “We’re starting now!” she called into the hallway, where a couple students still milled about.

“Later!” Mabel stage-whispered to her neighbour.

Going through the syllabus was always dull, but it killed some time. Really, Mabel suspected that the teachers only did it so they would have ten minutes or so that they wouldn’t need to fill with any actually educational stuff. Because no one ever listened to the syllabus. She subtly tried to get Wills attention, but he didn’t respond at all.

Apparently, he was the only one who actually listened. And ignored her for it.

She frowned, then waited until the teachers back was turned to waved violently at him.

‘No reaction at all!’ she was confused. She had long hair as well, but one could still see through the bangs enough to see a large and fast object moving out of the corner of their eye, right?

“Now, I would like for all of you to write down something you would like to draw. I’m going to collect those later, so you should rip them out of your notebook.” Mrs Petermeyer finished her introduction.

She couldn’t think of something right away, so she darted a glance to the side.

‘Monster?’ she read on Will’s note. ‘Not very specific.’ She recalled all the different monsters she’d seen over the years and smiled.

Still, she couldn’t really think of anything good.

“Everyone done?” she startled and quickly scribbled down ‘Garden’, before ripping out the note.

“Great! Now go ahead and get some paper from the back, if you need any pencils, feel free to look through the cabinets, but no colours! Today is pencils only!” Mrs Petermeyer talked a little louder to be heard over the sudden shuffling of feet rushing to the back of the class, where supplies were stored. After acquiring a sheet of paper, everyone returned to their seats, with some lingering behind to get some pencils. Mabel was one of the few who had thought ahead and pulled out her binder where she had stored some unlined papers. And, of course, she’d brought her own pencils as well.

“Now everyone!” the teacher raised her arms to get their attention. “I only have three words of instruction for you.” She turned around and pulled down one of the boards, revealing the instructions on the one behind it.

“Draw a tree!”

There was a moment of hesitation – the time it took Mabel's pen to find its way to her hand – before she began to sketch.

“How long do we have?” someone asked.

“Half an hour.” Came the answer from the teacher.

“Does it have to have roots?”

“If you _want to_ , you can draw them.” she shrugged.

Shortly after silence fell over the classroom, she picked up on a movement to her left and turned to look.

Will was folding his paper down the middle with a frustrated, almost angry look on his face. Confused, the girl watched as he picked up two pencils, one in each hand-

And began to sketch with both.

“Woah, that’s so awesome!” she whispered.

This seemed to snap him out of the strange mood that had him frowning down at his paper. Then he turned his head around to look straight at her.

‘Perhaps he _does_ have a seeing problem?’

“You can draw with both of your hands?” Mabel asked instead.

“Um, yeah, kinda.” He shrugged.

“I bet you’ll be done twice as fast then. Or make a twice as good picture.”

‘Probably the latter, what he’s drawing so far looks like it could become something very strange and awesome.’ She hummed in thought.

“Seems like you’re planning something good.” She gestured at the folded paper. “Good luck then!”

With this, the brunette turned back to her own drawing and began to vigorously attack the paper with her pencil. After all, she would have to do especially well now.

Drawing as quickly as she did, she was finished with the actual tree pretty soon, so the fine-tuned her drawing by adding in a little swing and two kids – she liked to think of them being her and her brother -  as well as a few more rough shapes of trees in the background.

By the time Mrs Petermeyer announced that they had five minutes left, she was just idly adding some details and the occasional blade of grass on the meadow she’d drawn.

“Pencils down, class!”

‘Done.’ She smirked.

“I said, pencils down, Jesse.” Mrs Petermeyer scolded another student before holding up a stack of papers. “These are your follow-up instructions. You will use them to interpret your neighbours tree drawing. Please switch out your drawing now.”

Mabel grinned and scooted closer to Will to steal his drawing before handing him her own.

“Wow, that looks really neat!” she smiled.

While he had certainly used the fold in the middle as a barrier initially, both trees had melded into one another and formed something that worked oddly well.

‘It looks a little- ….imbalanced? But it still looks good.’ She assessed.

“But what kind of tree is this?” she pointed at the right side. Since it was mostly off the paper, she could only see the leaves at the bottom, and those looked very much like-

“That’s a Chri- I mean, a pine. Christmas tree, pine tree, something like that. It’s both the same right? I think.” His speech had sped up considerably and for some reason, she got a sudden feeling that he was lying.

She tilted her head and smiled hesitantly. Perhaps it was just her imagination? “Why you ackin’ so cray-cray?”

“I’m not.” He grumbled and she caught a glimpse of his pout before he looked at her drawing. “Yours looks great too. Very detailed too.”

She could feel her face warm up at the praise. Definitely worth it. “Pfft. That’s nothing. You should see how much greater it would have looked in colour.”

The worksheets had finally arrived and Will took one for each of them. “Everyone got the instructions?” asked the teacher as she came over to take the rest of them off his hands.

A general noise of agreement came from the class and she nodded to herself. “Good, good. Now, read through the instructions and fill the blanks according to your partners drawing.”

She quickly glanced over the instructions, which were actually a list to fill out, spanning over two pages. After confirming that she could simply fill out as she read, as she spotted Will doing so, she began as well.

“Psst, Mabel?” He tried to get her attention before she had the chance to even set her pen onto the paper.

“Hm?” she turned to him.

“What’s your last name?”

“Pines, what about yours?”

“Taylor.”

“With ‘i’ or …?”

“T-A-Y-L-O-R.” he spelled out.

“Thanks.” She filled in their names before starting. Quickly she realized that she might have to make multiple crosses for Will’s tree, so she decided to simply write the side if they were different in an aspect. Crosses were for both.

_Tree Drawn By: Willard Taylor_

_Interpretation by: Mabel Pines_

_SIZE_

_Left      1. Small in relation to the paper: You are frugal, careful with money and time._

_Right    2. Large in relation to the paper.: You are generous to a fault. You tend to take on more than you can._

_LINE QUALITY_

_X          1. Firm, strong lines: Indicates an aggressive, positive, self-assured person._

_\-----      2. Light lines: Indicates you are soft-spoken and gentle. May tend to be inconspicuous._

_TREE PLACEMENT_

_X          1. Tree in top half of paper: You tend to be and up-in-the-air person, an independent spirit who needs a lot of freedom._

_\-----      2. Tree at bottom of page: Indicates a down-to-earth person, practical, sensible and reliable._

_\-----      3. Tree in the center of the page: Indicates a well organized person, good at planning ahead._

_\-----      4. Tree drawn crosswise on the page: Indicates broad mindedness type of person. Open to new ideas._

_DETAIL_

_Right?  1. Few lines or outlined only: You like to work with overall concepts, the big picture, but let others handle the details._

_Both?   2. Lots of detail: You like to immerse yourself in the details of anything you do._

 

 

“What am I supposed to do with this?” she nudged him and pointed at the ‘Detail’ section.

“….” He turned her head to face her and frowned. It seemed like he was having an inner debate. Suddenly, he sighed.

“Just pick one side.” Then he added with a smirk that screamed ‘bad boy’: “Whichever one you find more interesting.”

As she turned back to the worksheet, she could have sworn he heard him say ‘- not fair.’

She still filled out for both sides of the drawing, just in case.

 

 

_VALUE_

_\-----      1. Tree is shaded or darkened: Indicates a serious quality in the person._

_Both?    2. Tree is light and airy, without shading: You tend to be an easy going person, carefree._

_Both     3. One part of the tree is shaded: Indicates a serious concern about one aspect of your life:_

_Right    Trunk: concerned about home situations._

_\-----      Roots: indicates a troubled or difficult past_

_Both     Treetop: indicates concern about the future._

_SHAPE_

_Right    1. Tall: You are a tall-thinking person. You aim high and often inspire others._

_Right?  2. Pointed top: You are ambitious and like to feel that you are always moving forward._

_Left      3. Tree bent as if blowing in the wind: You tend to be restless, full of energy and often get caught up in the activity around you._

_\-----      4. Short and wide: You are contented, stable, satisfied with your life. If the tree is wide relative to its height, you also tend to be protective of those close to you._

_BASE_

_Left      1. Ground included: Indicates a need for security and planning_

_Right    2. Tree floating in the air: You are perfectly comfortable when things are spontaneous and you function equally well in any surroundings._

_Left?    3. Earth drawn as soft, graceful line under the tree: You are happy and contented._

_\-----      4. Tree drawn in a pot: You like to be on-the-go, you can take off on a trip at a moment’s notice._

_\-----      5. Tree drawn on a hill: You like attention and want to be noticed._

_ROOTS_

_Right    1. Roots included: The past is important to you. It has a strong influence on the way you live and think. Graceful roots suggest a warm feeling about childhood. (Nope to that)_

_Left      2. Tree base is open, without roots: You draw strength from the person you are today. A base drawn in a straight line indicates you have cut yourself off from the past. (Yep)_

 

‘Oh my gosh, if this is true this guy literally has a dark and mysterious past.’ she turned to look at him and tried waving again to get his attention.

He didn’t look up from his worksheet.

 ‘Okay, he must be half-blind.’ She thought jokingly.

“Psst! Hey, Will!”

“Yeah?” he murmured back, tensing up as he worked.

“Where are you right now?”

“Roots.” His answer was curt and his lips were pressed against each other. “You too.” It was a statement, not a question.

He was not particularly hostile, but the tone still irked her.

“You- are you okay? Did I do something wrong?” She feared she may have pressed too much again.

With a sigh, his shoulders slacked. “Nah, sh-” he paused and frowned. “Don’t worry about it. I’m great.” He shook his head and kept working.

She returned to her work as well.

 

_TRUNK_

_Right    1. Wide and sturdy: Indicates strength. You can stand up in adverse circumstances._

_Left      2. Slim and narrow: You are flexible and adaptable._

_\-----      3. Trunk is very straight: You tend to be well organized._

_Left      4. Trunk is clear and uncluttered: You are content with your home life. Gnarled, twisted or darkened trunk indicates an unhappy home situation. (Right?)_

_\-----      5. Knothole drawn: You are forgiving. And if the knothole is dark, you tend to be forgiving of others weaknesses, but have a hard time forgiving your own._

_TOP OF TREE_

_\-----      1. Drawn as fluffy cotton ball: Indicates a warm, gracious person, contented with life and comfortable to be around._

_Left      2. Simple, round top: You tend to be private and like to keep to yourself._

_Left      3. Winter tree, branches without leaves: You are honest. How things are done is more important to you than the final result._

_\-----      4. Summer tree with swirls and curves suggesting leaves: Indicates that you care more about the end result than the methods used to accomplish the task._

_\-----      5. Tree without branches and leaves: Indicates a well rounded person who cares both about the end result and the methods used to achieve it._

_\-----      6. All branches up: You are forward-looking and more interested in the future than the past._

_Left      7. Branches spread out in all directions: Indicates an outgoing person who reaches out to others._

_Both     8. Treetop with a lot of lines: Indicates energy and movement. You like to keep busy. If lines are very tangled, you may be confused about where your life is going. Sometimes you feel like you are just spinning your wheels. (Left one)_

_Right?   9. Each individual leaf is drawn: You tend to be methodical and like things well organized._

_Right    10. Tree looks cut off at the top: You are holding yourself back and can’t progress in the direction you want to go._

_THINGS DRAWN IN OR AROUND THE TREE_

_Left      1. Any extra features: You are aware of things going on around you._

_\-----      2. Fruits and nuts: You want your home to be a comfortable place_

_Left      3. Grass: You want your home to be a comfortable place._

_Left      4. Flowers: Beauty is important to you and you like to fill your home with beautiful things._

_\-----      5. Birds, animals, people: You are kind, warm-hearted and like to be with people._

_\-----      6. Sun: Indicates an optimistic outlook._

_\-----      7. Clouds: Indicates expectations of sorrow and disappointment._

_\-----      8. A swing: Indicates you enjoy life and find fun in all you do._

_CONCLUSION:_

_With the information you have gathered from above, write a paragraph about the person on the back of the tree drawing. The paragraph should summarize the personality of the person based on your findings from this checklist. After this, talk about your findings with your partner before introducing each other to the class._

 

She took another look over her notes, then started to write on the back of the paper, analysing each tree individually, and then both together. She noted that Will was done far quicker than her, but then again, he just had to make his tree so complicated, didn’t he?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Will sigh and lean back in his seat.

“How are you doing?” he asked Mabel and turned towards her again.

“Pretty okay. Still would like to know why you had to draw two trees.” She raised a brow at him.

“I… I couldn’t decide which one to draw.”

“Oh, I know how that is.” She laughed nervously, thinking of her various failed attempts to draw both things at once. Back then, it had seemed like a great idea, but really? A ‘Half-Fairy-Princess Half-Horse-Fairy-Princess’? Not one of her proudest moments. “Are you done already?”

“Um, yeah, but I can wait.”

She finished the last part, right in the middle of the lower half of the paper.

“Okay, I’m done now, here!” she handed him his drawing back.

“Thank you.” He traded it for hers and turned it over.

Upon seeing her texts, his eyes widened. “Wow.”

“It’s probably way off, there were so many contradictions in there. I’m pretty sure this doesn’t even make sense either.” She waved her drawing before starting to read. By now, half of the class was already chatting.

 

 

_‘Mabel Pines_

_is an energetic and carefree person. She is positive and has a need for freedom and activity. She likes to be the center of attention, but is generous and protective of her family and friends. Mabel has an optimistic outlook on life and enjoys it fully._

_Despite her generally carefree nature, she still is aware of the things going on around her and is concerned about her future, which relates to her need for a plan to give her security. Still, the results of said plan will matter more to her than the actual methods used. It’s probably best if you leave the planning to someone else. While she concerns herself with the details in the things she does, I believe she may forget the bigger picture (and vice versa)._

_The past matters little to her, and while she may be comfortable to be around for most, she can be a formidable foe in times of strife._

_In conclusion, she is someone who could very well be everyone’s best friend, with a forgiving, kind and caring personality who enjoys the company of others.’_

She stared down at the paper, more specifically at the second to last sentence.

‘can be a formidable foe in times of strife?’ she looked through her drawing and the instructions to find something she may have accidentally skipped.

‘Why would he think that?’ It may be true, but nothing about her tree indicated this.

She couldn’t quite decide if this bugged her more or less than the cursive and almost ornate signature underneath it. There were so many curls – especially around his first name- and for a second it hadn’t quite looked like it said ‘Will Taylor’….

‘Don’t even dare think that thought, Mabel Pines.’ She swallowed and looked at her classmate as he read her text.

Blonde and black hair, yellow shirt, black pants and choker and one hidden eye. She saw a grin spread across his face and her eyes darted down to where his right thumb was tapping on the paper near the beginning of the analysis for the right-side-tree. Shortly after, the grin faded and was replaced by an inquisitive look, before he frowned and grumbled something.

His face only lightened as he finished the paragraph, and he actually gave a smile that looked way too sweet and heart-warming when he read the last paragraph in the middle.

She was caught a little off guard when he suddenly turned to face her.

 “What?” he asked, a worried look on his face.

 “Are you…”

‘No! I can’t just ask him outright! He is going to think I’m nuts!’ then she allowed herself to finish her earlier thought. ‘And if I’m correct, I don’t think he’d tell me.’

In a flash of inspiration, she leaned in close and stared him in the eye. Blue eye. No yellow anywhere, except for his hair.

“Um. Hi? Did I do something?” he was looking very freaked out now.

‘Chill, Mabel. Everything’s fine, stop acting like your bro.’ she returned to her seat.

“Nah, psht! All fine, everything’s good, that was just a test toooo…..”

‘Damn.’

“…to see if you’d freak out.”

“Well, I did.” He frowned.

“Great, you pass!” she grinned and scooted her chair over next to his to discuss the assignment and get him to focus on something else besides her erratic behaviour. Perhaps she could blame hormones later on? Works most of the time, after all. Men never pay attention to the date, every guy she knew always accepted ‘hormones’ as an excuse.

“Okay, so, first of all, apparently this actually works, because this” she tapped his description of her. “is all true. Like literally, actually completely me. I like your writing style by the way.”

“Oh, um, thanks. I guess I read a lot of my brothers writing, he’s even better with words.”

“You have a brother? I do too! In fact,” she put on a smug grin. “we’re twins!”

“Surprise, surprise, sister, you’re not the only twin here.” He smirked back. Mabel gasped and put her hands on her cheeks.

“No way!” she shoved him lightly.

“Yes way! His name is Clifford.”

A memory flashed by so fast she almost didn’t quite catch it. Barely holding onto it, she recalled her mother showing her a video of her and Dipper with another set of twins in kindergarten.

“Wait a second!” her eyes were the size of dinner plates. “Clifford and Willard Taylor?!”

“Yeeeeeaaaaah?”

“Shut up!” she gasped. “My mom has a video of the four of us when we were kids!”

“What really?”

“Yeah! We were toddlers then and apparently, you were like, one of my kindergarten boyfriends?”

Now she started to remember more. In the video, she’d apparently apologized for something and gave Will a hair tie or something like that.

“Wait, were you that kid who climbed over my bro?”

“Uuuh, I can’t remember?”

“That’s okay, I can’t either, it’s just a story our dad told us when we were going through our old things.”

“But wow, this is soo cool!” she was bouncing in her seat. “I can’t believe it, I thought you moved away or something.”

“Why that?”

“’Cause my parents said so when I asked, but I guess they were wrong.”

He frowned. “Oh. Yes. That’s…. actually….” He trailed off and fell silent for a couple of moments, and once more, she got a really strange feeling. He was clearly struggling with something, but she couldn’t just assume what it was.

(she was wrong anyways, **he** was gone after all, they made sure of that, didn’t they?)

Mabel reached out and took hold of his right hand, which made him jump a bit. “Are you okay?”

“….Not really.” He gave a lopsided smile, before moving away his hand. “But I’ll be okay. It’s nothing.”

“Silence! Please, kids, settle down!” Mrs Petermeyer yelled over the throng of conversation.

“I totally forgot!” Mabel whispered. “Was my description okay?”

“….” He looked down at it once more, before smirking and leaning back in his chair, arms crossed. “Yeah. You were completely right about who I am.”

‘What.’

She barely heard the teachers next instructions as she mulled over that. Around the class, students were introducing their partners, but she couldn’t focus anymore.

‘ _Completely_ right?! I’m starting to sound as bad Dipper, but this is getting a little too freaky.’

Obviously, the boy next to her meant just her assessment of his personality, but-

‘If he didn’t? And really, the eye-checking was a little obvious, so of course-’

He wouldn’t have noticed, because he was really confused by that.

‘Or was he? Perhaps it was acting?’ she shook her head to clear it.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

The thought was oddly relieving. It didn’t matter. If her hunch (just a hunch, no proof, no justification!) was correct, then surely **he** would have let her know?

(which he basically did)

And so all she could really do was keep an eye on him. And when it turned out she was wrong and that it was all just coincidence, she’d still be friends with a good-looking guy.

‘Keep your friends close, and possible demons closer.’ She thought nervously, before realizing it was almost their turn for introductions.

“Hey!” she whispered. “Can I go first?”

“Sure, if you want?” Will shrugged and smiled. In that honest and gentle way that just- Argh. It didn’t fit at all. Because obviously, she was wrong.

The brunette stood up for her introduction.

“This is Willard Taylor, everyone!” she exclaimed as she did, before clearing her throat, trying to remember what she’d originally written about the trees he drew. “He’s a complex guy, with a lot of very contradicting facets, but he’s an overall really nice dude.”

That sounded like too little, so she added the one safe thing she could think of.

“Also, we actually met a long time ago when we were toddlers, so it’s great to see him again, even if I have no clue who he is now.”

She sat back down and he stood up to take over.

“And this is Mabel Pines, a sweetheart with lots of energy and joy for life. She can also be rather facetious and I am certain she would stand strong and fight for the things she believes in while still being herself.”

And now her face was on fire. Great. She pulled up her sweater – she never truly stopped making them – and hid the lower half of her face in it.

“Well, we just barely got done." Mrs Petermeyer was checking her watch in a dramatic fashion. “Please leave your note on what you wanted to draw on my desk, we'll work on it next week."

Around the classroom, students eased their belongings slowly towards the edge of the table.

"Aaaaaand….. now you’re free to go.” Just as she finished the sentence, the bell rang and everyone began stuffing their things into their bags.

When she had finished, she noticed the slightly lost look on her partners face. A playful grin made its way onto hers.

“Come on, Mr Slowpoke, some people need to get home!” she started pushing him out of the classroom.

“By the way, I’d really like to keep in touch, can I have your number?” she asked as they were walking down the hallway. Either way, having his number should be a good idea for now. She pulled out her phone and opened up a new contact file.

“Really?” he smiled and took out his phone. “That would be great, yeah.”

“Nice!” she fist-pumped before handing him her phone. “Gimme yours and I’ll give you mine!”

When they came to the foyer, she fully expected this to be goodbye, but he stopped to lean against the wall opposite to the staircase.

“What are _you_ waiting for?” she asked. Because, she was waiting for Dipper, but surely-?

“Clifford has his creative writing thing on the fifth floor, I promised I’d wait up for him.”

‘For real now?!’

“Okay, woah there, those are a little too many coincidences now mister!” she gaped.

“What are you talking about?” he chuckled and shook his head.

“My bro has the same class!”

“That is quite a coincidence!” he laughed. “Hey, perhaps Clifford and Dipper met, what do you think?”

She immediately tensed and started replaying the last one and a half hour in her head, thinking of all the things she said to him.

“What is it?”

‘Did I tell him Dippers name??’

 “Excuse me?” he tilted his head at her.

Oh god, did she say that aloud?!

Mabel was searching for a good way to answer, when suddenly, she noticed another boy behind Will.

“Nice to see you made a friend as well.” He greeted with a smile.

“Eeek!” Will jumped and whirled around. The other teen – who looked a lot like Will, was this Clifford? - chuckled. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Will bent over and wheezed for emphasis.

Off to the side, Mabel spotted her twin and waved to him. “Hey, Dipstick!”

Perhaps he could help her calm down and see reason?

….

Then again, when _ever_ had Dipper been less suspicious about something than her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still think you're all going to leave after the next chapter...


	3. I believe I can fly!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second chapter with the most votes :D  
> This one falls into the first week of summer, during one of the many sleepovers the boys had with their friends.  
> I hope you enjoy it, and I'll see you on Sunday!
> 
> By the way, this is the first week for the oneshot collection, so it gets two updates, but I'm gonna update this less than 'Try Again'.  
> So, I'm just gonna tell you in the notes of the main story if there's a new oneshot to be added, and the date ;P
> 
> Enjoy!  
> Holly~♥

“What was _it_ like for you?”

“Hum?” Cordelia raised her head from her pillow to look at Cliff (no, it’s Clifford now) who was sharing the mattress next to her bed with Will. Both his twin and Dennis were fast asleep, worn out from a night of listening to rock music, playing on her PS4 and stuffing themselves with junk food.

Ironically, Will had been the first to fall asleep during one of her favourite cartoon movies, that had some honestly really relaxing and sleep-inducing music. The other three had gotten out some markers and had begun writing all over his face. Dennis had been the one to suggest going to bed at 3 AM and had pretty much fallen asleep on his way back from the bathroom. Now he was lying on the second mattress in the room, right next to and slightly buried under the various pillows in her pillow corner.

“I mean the accident.” Clifford hesitated, clearly uncertain on how to address the subject properly. “Dennis was clear about how much it still bothers him, but…I really want to hear what happened. From someone who was there. Not if it’s too much, of course! But…” he trailed off.

She sat up and stared into the darkness of her room. Sure, she had been there and remembers some of it, but mostly…

“You know, I think what little Cordy told her parents back then clashes a bit with what I think now.”

“Then just tell me what you think now?”

 

_“Cordelia! Are you okay, my sweetheart?”_

_Mammy was rushing into the hospital room she shared with Dennis, swiftly followed by Daddy._

_“Are you hurt? What happened?”_

_Her parents were being a little loud, perhaps she should tell them that Dennis was sleeping. The little redhead was sad that she couldn’t share a room with Willy-Billy, but Dennis was okay too. A little boring, but a nice kid._

_“Sir, Ma’am, I need you to lower your voice.” The nurse chided them before she could. She was a nice old lady with grey hair and tired eyes, but she had a very friendly face. “There is someone else resting in this room.”_

_“Sorry.” Mammy said quietly as she carefully held her bruised and bandaged face and looked her over. She looked as though she was going to say something, but then she didn’t._

_“Are you okay, Mammy?” she asked her softly._

_Her Mammy’s eyes filled with tears and suddenly she was sobbing, kneeling on the floor next to her bed, being comforted by Daddy._

_“Are we-? You just-! And she wants to know if **we** are-” She could barely get out the words. Daddy was crying a little too as he held her._

_“I’m great!” She smiled at her parents, hoping it would make them feel better. It usually did. “It doesn’t hurt at all, and the nice nurse gave me a marker, so Dennis can sign my casts when he wakes up.”_

_Said nurse had actually come over from Dennis bed and was quietly talking to her parents. Even in between the nurse’s adult words and Cordelia’s soft but firm reassurances, it still took her parents several minutes to calm down. Just when they had quieted down a bit, then something besides the monitors connected to both her and Dennis made a beeping noise, and the nurse went to some sort of phone._

_“My sweetheart.” Mammy caught her attention. “We- we’ll be fine, just… are you doing alright? Do you want to talk about it?”_

_She nodded enthusiastically._

“I mean… I had two broken legs, was littered with bruises and was pumped full of morphine, so I guess my judgement now might be a little better.” She thought for a moment before chuckling. “I mean sure, double cast, double coolness factor, and twice as much space for signing. But… even though my legs healed fairly well, I’m still scared of traffic. My parents were a hundred times more vigilant than ever before whenever there was any sort of fast-moving vehicle around me. They actually used to ground me from my bicycle. Of course, only when I was misbehaving, since I love riding around a lot, so it was actually a punishment and it eased their minds a little.”

“I was just about to say, it doesn’t seem fair to punish a child for having been a victim in an accident.”

“Yeah, no. They never did. Actually, I think there was a boy who did get punished for it, but his family life wasn’t the best… I don’t even remember his full name now.” She shrugged, vaguely aware that Clifford wouldn’t be able to see it anyways.

“Still, my parents were freaking out hard, and they wouldn’t stop crying. Dennis parents arrived a little later, and after he had been hanging on to consciousness after getting bonked in the head, he was out for a day longer than I was. And since we were brought to the next hospital, all our parents had to drive at least an hour or longer to get to us. Plus: the fact that our teachers were the only ones who had all the numbers, and they had to make sure we were all on our way to the hospital and making sure we were still all … _there…_ well, it was around noon when we were hit, then all the important first-aid stuff, getting kids out of snow and to hospital, and _then_ call parents.”

“So the parents-”

“Didn’t know about the accidents until I think it was 7 PM? My mam keeps pushing it, I’m sure it was still light out when the arrived, but meh. Now she says they didn’t know until it was 9 PM, so I’m not really trusting her on that anymore.” She grinned.

 

_“It was soo cool!”_

_“What?!”_

_“Ma’am, please.”_

_“No, really.” She also lowered her voice again. She didn’t want to wake her best friend’s brother’s best friend. “It was like **Shzwoooom**!” she whispered while she made a gesture meaning to simulate something going really really fast._

_“But you got hurt, dear you could’ve-” her Daddy choked up again._

_“Oh yeah, it did hurt a lot, but it doesn’t now. So I’m already all better!” she thought for a moment. “It’s actually really funny!” she grinned._

_“FUNNY?!” she was happy that even though Mammy was kind of shrieking, she remembered to use her inside voice. She would have hated to have to reprimand her._

_“Yeah, like that movie we went to! About the mammoth and the tiger and the two little…. Um, I don’t remember what they were, but they were hanging on their head and they looked like rats? And one of them did the same thing!”_

_“What?” Mammy didn’t get what she was saying, again. So the girl turned to her Daddy._

_“You know? There was a tiger with big teeth and a squirrel with big teeth, and everything had big teeth. It was all these old animals. And there was this ice wall.”_

_“Ice Age?”_

_“Yeah! And one of the little I-don’t-know-what’s went flying too! And he smacked really hard into a tree and everyone in the cinema was laughing.” She finished explaining. “So it must be funny, right?”_

_Judging from the look on her parent’s face, they didn’t think so anymore. Oh well. It must be one of these jokes that are only funny once._

 

“Mom says I tried really hard to convince them that it was funny. Apparently, I made some strange connection to the second Ice Age movie that we saw in the theatre then.” She paused. “Did you see Ice Age yet?”

“I don’t think so.” The older Taylor twin sounded thoughtful.

“Then I’ll put that on the list. Anyways, now I’m pretty sure that I must have been terrified when it happened, because I went flying down the length of the bus so quickly, I would have never been able to really process it. It wasn’t just fast, it was just…. one second I’m in my seat, minding my own business, the next I’m rolling over the floor and slamming into the front of the bus. And then I lost consciousness.”

She sighed.

“I told my parents I was flying, but now? I’m pretty sure that was just a kid being high on painkillers, because my body was just one giant bruise – which, sure, wasn’t hurting because of said painkillers – so of course, little Cordy was all: Wow! Now I have rainbow skin!”

Somewhere next to her, she heard chuckling that was a little too high pitched to be Clifford’s.

“Sorry.” Will purred. “That was just… really kinda cute.”

“How long have you been awake?” Clifford asked.

“Uuuh?” he groaned. “About when she was telling the time the parents arrived? You were speaking, so I woke up.”

“You didn’t really miss much.” Cordelia hummed.

 

_It had been a week before she could leave the hospital, but she had to leave in a wheelchair. A lot of her classmates were already back home, and Dennis would probably miss Christmas, as well as some others. It was too bad really, that they had to stay longer. When she had asked her parents, Daddy had said they got hurt a bit more, so they had to rest longer than her._

_That made sense._

_When she scraped her knee or twisted her ankle, she only had to rest for a little while, but with the casts and broken bones, of course it would take longer._

_She asked if they thought Will and Cliffy and Dennis and she could play the after Christmas then._

_“Hopefully.” Daddy had said. Mammy was looking sad again, so she smiled at her. It didn’t seem to help. It hadn’t helped much the past few days._

_She hoped too. It would be too bad if they all had to miss Christmas. Cordelia told her parents so._

_“They can always celebrate a little later.” Daddy reassured her._

_“You’re right!” she hummed as they went to the car. It was nice getting pushed around in the wheelchair._

_“So we can play again then! I made them really great Christmas presents after all!”_

“I was in a wheelchair for about six weeks? One leg had was healed faster than the other, so I got another two or three weeks of crutches, and then I was free.” She thought hard, trying to remember.

“I remember waiting for you to wake up, for my parents to tell me you were having your catch-up Christmas party. I was so upset when I found out that you might miss the next Christmas as well.”

 

_“NO!”_

_“Oh, sweetheart I’m sorry, but-”_

_“NOOOO!”_

_“Cordelia, plea-”_

_“NONONONONOOOOO!”_

_Six months. Half a year now. They had been gone for half a year._

_And no one thought to tell their best friends that they wouldn’t wake up again?!_

_“I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!” she shrieked in her parent's faces before running into her room and slamming the door behind her. She quickly pulled one of her chairs in front of it before sitting down on it and crying._

_She shouldn’t have asked Dennis why he was being so weird. But he hadn’t talked to anyone for the whole week._

_And when she had asked._

_He had told her._

_‘The twins are never coming back.’_

_She had tried to comfort him, she had thought so too every once in a while after all, but her parents had said…._

_Her parents._

_Said they were sleeping._

_She growled and turned around to pound her fists into the door loud and hard and fast._

_“LIARSLIARSLIARS!” she yelled._

_Except._

_They never lied._

_The twins **were** sleeping. _

_Just for a long time._

_And maybe forever._

_The small redhead rushed over to her bed and rolled beneath it to curl up with her emergency teddy. (Emergency, because she was too old for cuddly toys, so he had to hide under the bed to guard her against any monsters.)_

_“Why didn’t they tell us?” she asked him._

_There was no reply._

“Man, I was upset. I still remember _that_ _day_ clearly. I get it now, first they weren’t even sure you’d make it through the first week, then it wasn’t even certain that you were in a full-blown coma yet, and by the time they knew, well. Must be hard to be a parent and break it to your kids that their friends could either wake up, keep sleeping or die any day now. But holy cow, back then I didn’t talk to my parents for a long time. Since Dennis was told before I was, he at least knew how hurt I was, so we got a lot closer during that time, but… well, this is kinda mean, but think from a kids point of view: I was cool, Dennis wasn’t. We kept hanging outside of school every once in a while, but we didn’t talk much during school hours.”

“So, you didn’t see what had happened to everyone else?” Will asked quietly.

“Nope.” She sighed. “And I’m mighty glad about that. Dennis could probably tell you more, but… let it be on his terms. You can hint at it, that you’re interested, but let him decide when. He didn’t tell me much more than what he told us last week in the garden, even though there is still a lot that he’s keeping bottled up.”

“What about the other classmates?”

“Mostly okay. You three and the two kids in the seats in front of you twins, that were the five kids who had to stay until after Christmas, but they were all out around New Years. Well, except for the two of you. Then there were I think less than ten kids or so, who left after a couple of days, and the majority of the class, who just came that first day for a check-up and general care, maybe staying ‘til the next morning, depending on where their parents came from to pick ‘em up. There was one couple of parents who wanted to use the chance to fly out of state for their own vacation, so there was that one kid that had literally nothing except a bruise on his shoulder, who had to stay two days before her parents could pick her up.” She grinned.

For a few moments, there was silence in the room.

“Thank you.” Clifford mumbled.

“No biggie. It’s not that horrible for me. I was hardly awake for any of it after all.” She chuckled. “And in hindsight, I think my first assessment was correct.”

“Hm?” Will made an inquisitive noise.

“The one about that movie scene. I’ll have to show you sometimes, it really kinda fits. And it’s hilarious.” She snickered. “But…” she shot a glance at her alarm clock.

5 AM

 “That will have to wait. I’m going to sleep now. Perhaps Mam and Dad won’t wake us before 2 PM.” She chuckled.

“Goo’ Night, boys.”

“Night.” Will mumbled.

“Rest well.”

She chuckled. “You’re such nerd, Cliffy.”


	4. One Eyed Horror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone!
> 
> This little one shot technically takes place before the events of Try Again, but personally, I see this as a sort of flashback Dennis gets after seeing the twins again for the first time.
> 
> Have fun reading!  
> (But not too much...I added the 'Graphic Depictions of Violence' tag with this chapter...)  
> Holly~♥

„-and just before the winter break, we are planning a three-day class trip, so-“ the teacher didn’t get to finish as the class erupted into cheers.

The kids were screaming with joy, some yelling questions and a little brown haired boy turned to his best friend.

“Cliff? Where do you think we’re going?”

“Please, children, calm down!” she laughed.

After a few minutes, the class had calmed a bit.

“Now, I am going to give each of you a letter for your parents, and they will have to sign them for you to be able to go, alright?”

A few seats left from Dennis, a hand shot up.

“Yes, Cordelia?”

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To the Yosemite National Park. Up in the mountains.”

The volume increased once more.

 

“Please calm down!”

“No! I’m not leaving!”

“Dennis, please!” his mom pulled him over to the car.

“But I can’t just leave Cliff and Will alone! They might die!” He shuddered as his mind tried not to recall what he had seen almost two weeks ago.

He had missed Christmas, and in tomorrow was already New Years.

“They are fine, dear.” She insisted. “And they’ll be home before you know it, they just need a little more time.”

With one last look at the hospital, he let himself get lifted into the car and buckled in.

His two friends were the only ones still in there.

 

“Sorry, but you’ll have to stay home.” He told Snitch and Mr Hopper.

The stuffed animals stared back silently.

“I know what you mean, but I won’t have the other kids make fun of me, so you’ll have to stay.” He insisted and turned away to stuff another book into his already way too full bag.

“Dennis, my boy, what are you doing?” his dad chuckled from the doorway. “That will never fit! Come on, let me help.” He came over and sat down next to him.

“Mom packed my clothes, so everything is fine there.” He explained.

“But why do you need all these books? Aren’t you going up into the mountains?”

“Yeah, that’s why I packed these!” he held up a nature guide.

“Okay, fair point. But I say…. Two books less would do some good, don’t you think?”

“Hmmm, alright, if you say so.” He removed one thick storybook and a thinner guide on lake animals. “Like this?”

“Perfect.” His dad grinned and ruffled his hair.

It was going to be a great trip!

 

“This is an awful trip.” He whispered to Deli.

There was no reply from her.

She was lying on a stretcher, fast asleep. Around him sat four more kids, from the row in front of theirs. The six of them were the second group to leave for the hospital. The twins had been the first to be driven away. Shortly after that, the reinforcements came.

“It is.” Jane mumbled next to him, very much near tears. Her arm was in a makeshift cast and she was holding a cool pack to her head. There was one adult in the back of the- truck-thing-mini-hospital? He didn’t know the word.

They were told that it was very important to stay awake.

He didn’t want to though. He just wanted to go to sleep and forget what he just saw.

 

Mom made his favourite meal. She said that he had to at least try the food at the inn where they would spend the next few days. But for today, she would make him his favourite.

“I know you don’t like eating someone else’s cooking, but I won’t have you eat nothing at all. So please try?”

After dinner, he was bouncing on his bed, unable to relax.

“Dennis, come on!” his dad grabbed him from the air and set him down on the bed. “Go to sleep. You wouldn’t want to miss the bus tomorrow morning, right?”

He gasped. “Of course not!” and burrowed himself into his sheets.

 

He hugged the blanket closer. It was freezing outside.

But it was still better to be out here than in there.

With all the…

He turned around again and hunched over the bush where he had already puked earlier.

When he was done, he felt a hand rubbing his back. “….”

The man was saying something. That wasn’t their teacher. His first instinct was to run away, back to his teacher. Someone was screaming.

“-ennis, hush, everything will be alright, please stop screaming!”

Apparently, it was him. He took a deep gulp of air.

There were lights blinking, red-blue-red-blue, and more red red _red **red**_ -

He doubled over again, but there simply wasn’t anything left to throw up.

“Don’t worry, backup is on the way, you’re getting to a hospital soon.” The man from before said.

“But Will-” he rasped.

“Your friends were the first to get out, don’t worry, we’re doing our best.”

 

“Woah, kids I’m doing the best I can!” the bus driver scolded playfully as the children crowded around him, each trying to give him their bags so they could head inside the bus and get the best seats. “I can’t pack more than one bag at a time, so please make a line, okay?”

Quickly, Dennis rushed over to stand with his friends in the nearest line. Because of course, the kids formed three of them, mainly because the kids who were closest to the bus driver didn’t want to give up their good spot.

“…. Well alright, I figure that works as well.” He shrugged and began taking turns with putting in the baggage of the kids.

When he finally got into the bus, Deli, who had managed to be the first inside, waved to Willard from the back row. “Willy-Billy! I got us seats!”

“Nice! Last one there is a rotten egg!” the boy ran past Dennis and his twin also started chasing after. Dennis quickly ran along, but ended up coming last anyways.

“Ha! Now you get to pick seats last!” Willard stuck out his tongue at him.

“I’m sitting right here!” Deli plopped herself down in the middle seat.

“Can I have the window seat?” Cliff asked.

“Sure, then I’m sitting next to Cordy.” Willard and Cliff took their seats on the left side. Dennis shrugged.

“Okay, fine. Then I’ll just sit with Deli.” He climbed onto the seat.

 

He stumbled down the stairs of the bus. There was a red stain on the floor where the teachers had picked up Deli.

He barely felt the temperature drop as he walked over the asphalt, through the snow that was falling quickly enough to begin to cover the road.

Dennis blinked into the headlights of the truck, then scrambled out of the way as he thought of the reason why they were all leaving the bus to quickly.

One of the teachers was on the phone, the other two were still inside the bus along with the driver.

The other children were huddled in groups, each comforting or hugging or crying with their friends, but…

His friends were all gone.

He was all alone.

 

The whole bus was singing Christmas carols.

They’d been driving for a pretty long time and already had a break once. Which had been great, because he had been reading too much and had felt a tummy ache. The whole class had gone outside to stretch their legs and the four of them had built a small snowman.

Dennis wasn’t sure who started it, but one by one, everyone had started to sing along, and now the whole class was having a blast. Deli was humming as she stuffed her face with the snacks her parents packed, Cliff was singing along and Willard was drawing on the table that could be folded down from the seat in front of them.

And he sang along as the bus drove down the winding mountain road. There was a hill coming up and it looked so nice in the snow. He could barely see through the thick snowflakes falling outside, but the almost black-looking trees reaching towards the grey sky like thin hands looked both creepy and really beautiful.

“What are you drawing?” Deli asked Willard.

“Us!” he grinned and showed them the almost finished drawing of a yellow bus full of smiling faces before continuing to move his pencil across the paper, his face close to the paper and eyes staring with much concentration.

 

He shook his head to get rid of the dizzy feeling and the whistling noise, but both stayed.

Dennis turned to his right to ask what happened-

the words got stuck in his throat

_Deli was gone and_

there was red on Willard’s drawing. A lot of it.

_the pencil wasn’t in Willard’s hand anymore_

he had bled before, but

_perhaps on the floor?_

his eyes darted down, then up again before returning to the drawing

_there-_

because that wasn’t right

He **must** have seen wrong. His gaze went back up to Willard’s face.

**_there_ ** _it went_

he had seen right

Willard wasn’t moving. There was more **_red_** dripping from his face and

Someone was screaming and suddenly everything moved way too fast. There were the teachers and _everyone was so loud and whyisnoone **doingsomething!?**_

His throat hurt and his tummy ache was back as he rushed to the front of the bus where Deli was.

And there was more **red**

**_Oh god why?_ **

 

Going down a hill is always fun.

And with all the snow outside it almost seemed like they were all in a giant sleigh.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise behind him and when he turned to look out the back window, a jolt went through their bus and he hit his head against the seat in front of him.

For a moment, he thought how lucky Deli was that there was no seat in front of her, because that hurt **a lot.**

 

….

 

His mother had always told him to not run with a lollipop in his mouth or scissors in his hands.

She didn’t have to say it anymore.

His father had always said he wouldn’t start driving before he was all buckled up.

He walked to school for the next few years.

His teachers said there wouldn’t be another class trip.

No one was sad about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is the story of Will's missing eye....
> 
> This was really difficult to write for me, because I absolutely hate just the concept of something happening to my eyes >.<  
> I had a very gross experience once as a kid that led me to (falsely) believe my eyes had just been ripped from their sockets, sooo I'm a bit sensitive about them ^_^'
> 
> Anyways, see you on Sunday!  
> Holly~♥


	5. Strong Will

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> It got a little late for me, but here is a side chapter to Try Again - Chapter 18, right after Will and Dipper's first confrontation.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this different point of view :)  
> It's definitely shorter than the other ones, but still... (^w^')
> 
> Holly~♥

 

...

 

Of course.

Of course, he had to pick the most headstrong kid ever as a lifeboat. Because why not?!

Now he was not only stuck, but he was also stuck with no conceivable way of _doing_ anything about it!

BECAUSE _OF COURSE_ THE BRAT WOULD FIGHT BACK!

Just peachy.

He stared up into the chaos above him. Thoughts, given form, were flying left and right and up and all over the place.

He tried to push himself up again, but he couldn’t even twitch a finger. Which he figured he wouldn’t even be able to see if he _did_ manage to get it in front of his face.

Fantastic.

Oh well, lesson learned.

Don’t try to force Willard back, he’s way too obnoxiously stubborn. He had just been lucky that thanks to that idiotic therapist of ~~theirs~~ his, the kid stopped seeing him as a separate entity. Otherwise, he may have flushed him out completely with the stunt he just pulled….

He gave a mental sigh.

‘What the fuck did you do?! Talk to me!’ Willard’s voice echoed through the space he was currently residing in.

He’d been hearing him fret for the past few minutes, ever since he woke up again. For a moment, he had been certain he died for good.

And he had a feeling he just barely survived the kid's frenzied attempt to regain control of his body. He wouldn’t try that again anytime soon.

Oh well.

The shapes flying above him blurred and faded away as Willard slowly fell asleep.

He saw a figure approaching. Perhaps he could try another way.

He closed his eyes, ready to play possum until things had calmed down a little.

A few days of rest were probably not the worst idea anyways…


	6. Insert Winner Here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This is merely a result of me being a dweeb and not being able to figure out who should win a game without playing through it myself. (Yes, I sat there for about three to four hours over the span of three days, playing each of these five teens to figure out who would win. ...the three to four hours is mostly due to me having to write down everything they did or planned to do every round, so yeah, usually this game takes one and a half hours, half as much if you know what you're doing.)
> 
> ANYWAYS.
> 
> This takes place right after Chapter 23 - Game Night. If you have fun reading through this monster, I'm happy, because I didn't want to let his go to waste, but it would mess up the pacing of the actual story.
> 
> HAVE FUN BYE!  
> (didi i mention it's wirts pov? no? whoops.)
> 
> Holly~♥

Setting up the game itself wasn’t very hard, everyone picked their colour, then the five little cubes they got were distributed among different ‘tracks’. Each of them had three henchman figurines and one scientist figure in their colour. After Will had quickly claimed yellow, and red was taken just as quickly by Cordelia, Clifford picked out the black pieces, which left Wirt and Dennis to choose from purple, blue and green.

“Can I have green?” Dennis asked and Wirt shrugged and reached out to take the blue pieces and put the purple ones back into their bag.

“-we have to each pick a random one of the big cards… huh, see the slots? Apparently they interlock, so we can hide our stuff behind that. Cool.” Will read out from the instructions and held up the thicker cardboard cards for the Doomsday Devices and Escape plans.

He shuffled them as best as he could and held them out for everyone to draw one. After drawing one of each, Wirt made them interlock and looked at what he got. A so-called Pheromonic Stupefyer and a Dirigible as and Escape Plan.

Below the names, there was a table that showed three stages and what the player would need to get there, Will explained. The numbers in the familiar shields were obviously the Victory Points, and the higher the stage of the thing they had to build, the higher the amount of stuff they need and the more VP they would get.

“We are not only going to need the materials, we also need certain inventions, which are these.” Will pointed to seven stacks of cards lying beside the board. “These are actually all the same in each stack, just the top card is different, as in, first to invent the thing gets paid by the ones who build it after him.”

So they needed certain inventions, materials, and apparently one more thing-

“And the last two is stuff you get by moving your little cubes on these two tracks.” Will pointed to the tracks labelled ‘Genius at work’ and ‘Manual Labour’. “You get those, by placing your doc or your henchmen on the spots beside it, docs can only go on orange and henchman only on blue. This looks more like grey to me, but okay.” He shrugged. “Also, first gets more and the spots labelled with an X can hold as many henchman or docs as needed.”

Cordelia was looking through and sorting the cards into their supposed space and suddenly piped up. “We got turn summaries here, should we just wing it and consult the rules when we’re stuck? Otherwise we’ll sit here forever just listening to the rules.”

Dennis shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Since no one seemed against the idea, Will discarded the rule booklet and took a turn summary from Cordelia. “Okay then. Beginner is who last did something evil and we start by each placing one figure - doesn’t matter which – wherever we need it.”

“I think that’s Clifford.” Cordelia said and handed a white cylinder that was the Starting Player Marker.

“Something tells me this is going to be much harder than Monopoly.” Dennis chuckled and directed an amused glance at Wirt. Figures he must be looking as lost as he felt.

“I’ll be fine, it doesn’t look _that_ hard!” he protested. It really didn’t, most of the instructions were basically on the board.

“Wait a second.” Clifford had been about to play his first figure, but he paused and retracted his hand from the board. “We need Workshop Cards and Black Market Cards.” He pointed at the empty fields, to which Will picked up the instructions while Dennis began to draw cards and put them down on the numbered fields.

“Yup.” The semi-blonde twin confirmed. “Draw cards and place them in order of the num- okay, you’re already doing that. The orange _and_ grey fields are for both docs and henchmen, by the way.”

Clifford hummed, then placed his doctor on the first spot of a steel mill. “You get two resources for a henchman, three for a doctor. Also, you can apparently trade materials?”

Wirt looked down at the material cards, which were right next to him. “Ah, yes. I think those are refined? Like, there is raw glass and refined glass, raw leather-” he looked closer to read the small print under that. “…. And other animal parts?” he must have made a face, because Cordelia snorted before bursting into laughter.

“Bwahaha, I take back ahahanything bad I said about – hah – this game. That’s great.”

Will placed his doctor as well, on the other steel mill that was currently on the board.

“Why is everyone taking my fucking iron?” Dennis grumbled and settled in second place with a henchman. Only the first place was half orange, so if you didn’t get first place with your doc, you had to settle for getting only two materials.

Wirt looked over his cards. He didn’t need that much iron, he needed much more cloth, but there was no workshop for it. He placed his doctor on the Genius track, since he would need a lot of points there to invent not only his two main goals, but also the smaller inventions needed for it. “This game is really complicated.” He lamented. “Can we even get all this in-” he looked at the turn counter. “Fifteen rounds?”

“Must be.” Cordelia put down her doctor in the tannery to get leather.

They all continued placing down their figurines until all of them had been placed. After Dennis took a moment to actually read some of the instructions on the board, he snatched up the spot that would give him two coins and the starting player token. Since Cordelia had asked how they would get money if only three spots gave them any, Will looked it up. It turned out they forgot to give everyone money, which depended on the starting player. Clifford ended up getting nothing, Will and Dennis both got one gold and Cordelia and him got two.

Then Wirt set his henchman on the spot that would give him five gold, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Cordelia.

After resolving the whole round, Wirt was three coins richer and had two victory points, as well as some on the genius and labour tracks. But no materials yet.

‘Next Round.’ He promised himself. With Dennis being the next starting player, he had a good chance. Cordelia replaced all the workshops and black market slots – the latter seeming to be mostly about selling or trading your materials, or refining them for money.

“Wait, Cordy, we get to invent first!”

She looked down at the cards and then at Will.

“Can you invent something?”

“….” He looked into his cards, hidden behind the two boards. Wirt darted a glance at the yellow cube on the genius track, which was still at zero. He couldn’t invent. You needed the genius points to invent anything. Wirt decided to keep quiet for now, he had seen how Clifford reacts when he thinks someone might be rude to Will.

“……..no. Nevermind, continue.”

The next round, Wirt managed to get the starting marker as well as some copper and leather.

“Can anyone invent?” Cordelia asked dramatically, clearly not expecting an answer, since no one had more than 3 points on the genius track. When no one said anything, she continued replacing the markets. “ _Good_.”

In the third round, Wirt kept an eye on the special inventions in the corner. Those only cost two genius points and had some pretty good effects for the inventor. He tried to get together enough resources for one that would let him advance on the social track without paying. The social track was one of three tracks – social, security and exotic pets – that were apparently just a way to buy victory points, but the 23 at the end of the social track was more than he thought he could achieve with his doomsday device and escape plan.

Sure, the third stage of each were higher than that, but he was certain he wouldn’t get there.

“Inventing?” Cordelia asked after resolving.

“I can.” “Yes”

Wirt darted a look at Clifford, before averting his eyes again. That stare was unsettling. The other wasn’t glaring or anything, he just seemed so… cold towards him suddenly.

Will was looking through the instructions again. “It goes from the new starting player, which is me. So, I can’t invent, Dennis?”

The boy shook his head.

“So, Wirt goes first.” He waved a hand at him and crossed his arms behind his back.

“Oh, a-alright.” He stammered and quickly picked out the cards he needed. “Here. Wool, glass, leather, wood and two-” he waved his hand at the board. “-brain points or whatever.”

This prompted a chuckle from Cordelia and Will, as well as a smile from Dennis. Sadly, it didn’t seem to do much for Clifford’s disposition.

“And that is this thing.” He picked up the card and held it up for the others to see. He read out the description and placed it next to his other cards. Dennis placed a new card in its place and read out what it did. Apparently, it could knock a henchman from a 1st place position in a workshop down, to 2nd or 3rd, so you could replace it with your own.

“I changed my mind.” Clifford sorted his cards around. “I’ll take that.” He showed the required copper, steel and 2 wood before moving down his brain points tracker and taking the card.

The next card was one that would enable the player to move down the security track without putting a figurine down. “At least, in some places and you still need to pay the cost.” Dennis summarized.

“Laaaameee.” said Cordelia and replaced the workshops for the next round.

In the rounds that followed, Wirt began to realize that getting everything he needed might be easier than he thought at first.

By the 5th round, he already had almost everything for his first stages, he just needed to refine his iron and cloth and get another wood, then he’d be set. Sadly, now they would have to pay rent, which was at one gold per turn. Not much, and he had moved forwards on the social track too, so he needed just one more move to land on real estate, which would exempt him from paying rent. And he didn’t even need to pay the ten gold for that thanks to his invention.

So, perhaps he was looking a _little_ smug right now.

“I would like to invent something.” Clifford said, who had claimed the starting marker this turn. He placed a refined steel, normal steel and a copper on the table.

“No.” Cordelia said. Clifford took the combustion engine and paid five brain points, which left him at zero, but with the highest cost invention of the seven. “ _No_!” Wirt looked down at his card. If Cordelia’s reaction was anything to go by, he might not be the only one who needed to build one of these.

Which meant they might all have to pay 6 gold to Clifford at some point or another.

Right after that, Will did the same for a 5-gold invention and Dennis followed his example.

He looked down at his cards. Could he invent anything? ….Well, he could, but he only needed that in stage two of his escape plan. But it seemed like he might actually make that, so he paid all four of his brain points, steel copper and five gold to invent something that the others would have to pay him four gold for.

Cordelia stared down at her cards, shaking her head. “I hate all of you.” She chose a couple of cards and two gold and made a 5-gold invention.

She was, however, still the furthest one the genius track… only she and Will still had any points left there.

As the game continued, Wirt tried to keep his focus more on his brain points and the single stages he needed to finish. It made the game much easier and by the end of round 6, he had completed both first stages of his two plans. Or at least, he had the materials and inventions he needed. He would still have to get further on the brain point track and the labour track.

Which was great, because Will noted that you’re disqualified if you don’t get both first stages done in time. He found this while looking up what happens if someone cannot pay rent, which happened to Cordelia and Clifford for a couple of turns. They simply lost a henchman for the next round.

“To work off the rent, I suppose.” Will shrugged.

Wirt had managed to reach the ‘Real Estate’ field on the social track, so he didn’t have to worry about the rent anymore, which was pretty great.

“You know,” Cordelia started as she shuffled the shop cards. “I think I’m starting to get the hang of this game.”

“You just went two rounds with no money and one henchman less.” Dennis stated.

“And Clifford went three, and I’m pretty sure he’s winning.” She nodded his head at the raven-haired teen. “Next round, everybody!”

One problem was that for the brain points track, there were two fields, for the first to put down their doctor and then one for everyone else. And if you didn’t get the first place, you were better off spending your turns to place everything else, and placing your doctor last, since it didn’t make a difference anymore. Just, Wirt had been torn between putting his doctor on either that or the social track for more victory points.

Since Clifford had the staring marker, Wirt had a little time to go through all his cards and figure out what exactly he needed to do next. He needed a total of 7 brain points – so two more – and five more labour points to be able to build the first stages of both machines. But after that, he would need the materials for the next stages to get a little more points.

If he could stack up on wood, glass and leather the next turn, he’d probably have a pretty good chance of finishing at least one of the second stages-

“Wirt.” Clifford’s rough voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?! What-”

“You’re the inventor of the aluminium framing?”

“What?” he frowned when Clifford rolled his eyes.

“The wire cube?” he pointed to the card he was apparently trying to buy.

“Ah! That thing. Yeah?”

“Here.” Clifford handed him four coins and took one of the cards.

“…Thanks?” he attempted to smile, but seeing as Clifford was ignoring him, he wouldn’t have noticed it when he dropped it again.

“I’m gonna buy the saaaa- nevermind.” Will trailed off. “I’m too poor.”

Dennis passed on the inventing and Wirt did the same, halfway lost in thought.

What happened to make Clifford so rude to him all of a sudden? They hadn’t actually talked much since their Writing class, but they had spent time together. Perhaps that’s what it was? Too little talking? It hadn’t seemed like Clifford was ever actually looking for conversation, he just listened whenever the group talked. From what Wirt could see, it was clear that Will and Cordelia were the conversationalists of the group, Dennis being more of a mediator and both good at listening and chatting along, but Clifford had seemed more like he didn’t care for conversation so much. Maybe that’s where he’d been wrong?

“Wirt.” Dennis nudged his arm. It was his turn already?!

“Y-yes! Sorry.” He quickly placed his doctor on the somehow still free first position for the brain points. It was probably free because everyone else was way ahead of him.

After resolving that round, not only Will, but Dennis and Cordelia bought one of the metal cube thingies as well, which left him a whole twelve gold richer. He swiftly counted what he had so far. 25 gold in total. And no idea on what to spend it.

Perhaps one of the other two victory point tracks? The Security track only needed a doctor at the beginning and end, so he could just place a henchman there and proceed that way. He made a note to start there, then he remembered he had the starting marker and he didn’t need to remember that long.

By the end of the ninth round, he darted a look at the clock. They had been playing for nearly an hour!

“Funny.” He mentioned. “The box said the game would take 25 minutes to half an hour, but it’s already 4:25 PM.”

“Holy shit.” Dennis craned his neck to look at the clock. “So we’ve been playing this for over an hour already? Seemed like it was less time, honestly.”

“Good thing we came so early, then, right boys?” Cordelia grinned.

It took them very little time and suddenly, there were only three rounds left in the game. Will looked oddly smug, and Wirt had a hunch he might have done pretty badly himself. He still had a few things to do…

By the end of the round, he felt like he was back on top somewhat. He only had to build one more invention, then he’d have everything he needed for both of his third stage missions. And he had also just finished the social track, which would give him a great advantage as well.

This game was really difficult to understand at first, but he had to admit, it was fun playing something else for once. Whenever Greg wanted to play a board game nowadays, it was almost always UNO, and the only other games their family had at home were Monopoly, chess, Scrabble and Yahtzee. They simply didn’t play board games that much.

“So,” Cordelia announced. “Round 14, boys. We have two rounds left to do whatever we still need to do.”

He needed one more copper, one gold and then he could invent the last thing he needed. And he had two turns to make that happen, so it was completely doable.

Will had been hogging the starting player marker for the past three rounds and he started this round again by placing his henchman on that field.

Dennis groaned. “Does it really matter that much who gets it now? The game is almost over and you can get more money from the +5 field.” He put his henchman there.

“I don’t need money, I just want to be first.” Will smirked.

Wirt thought for a moment. There were two copper workshops, so six fields left, but only one field left to get any money – plus the two on the black market, but for one of those he’d have to give away two cards. He looked through what he had left and it turned out that would work. He placed his henchman on that card.

Cordelia hummed, waved her doctor through the air and then put it down on the exotic pets track. Immediately after, Clifford placed his on the social track. He, Dennis and Cordelia hadn’t gotten to the real estate field yet, so they still had to pay rent every turn. Will however, would be right behind him at the end of the turn, since he just placed his doctor on that track as well. Dennis doctor went on to the security track, and Wirt started wondering if they were all done with their main missions already.

None of them had made any movement towards the markets!

He placed his doctor at the end of the security track. He would need four more gold coins for that, but he would get four from the black market field, so he just needed one more.

Cordelia, Clifford and Will all placed their next henchmen on the steel mill workshop card however. Now he was confused. Then again, there weren’t many other placed for henchmen left. The Manual Labour track had been finished by everyone and the Genius at Work track too.

But when Dennis placed one on the copper workshop, he decided he should probably go there next as well… but there were still five places left, he could still get one next round. The money fields were getting sparse though.

He placed his second henchman on the +4 gold field. Seemingly a good move, since Cordelia took the +3 next.

Both Will and Dennis placed their last henchmen as if they didn’t care much where exactly they put them and he took a field of the copper workshop.

Cordelia placed hers on the black market card for refining materials and Clifford took the next space on the security track.

He was the only one who invented anything that round, but now, he had everything he needed. And additionally, he had finished both the Security and Social Track, which were an additional 40 victory points and with his missions that would make… 105.

So, not as bad as he thought. He smiled a little and went through his things one more time.

Wait a second. He sorted everything once more. He was missing one glass, but that would be easy to get next round.

……..he was relieved when Cordelia finally placed one glass workshop in the last spot.

“Uuuuuiiiihh!” she teased. “Does someone need some glass?”

For once, he was glad Will had hogged the starting marker. With him and Dennis alone, they weren’t able to block the entire shop before he got his henchman in. And before he knew it, the round was over.

“Uuuugggghhhh.” Cordelia fanned out her tiny material cards. “This is so awful. Why do we end it with so many useless cards?”

Clifford pointed at the still not invented special cards and duct tape. “I thought about inventing one of these for the victory points at the last minute, but I didn’t have the stuff I needed.”

Cordelia smacked her forehead with her palm. “Of course! I’m such an idiot. Instead I went and collected wood.” She tossed about seven to eight cards of wood on the table.

Clifford stared down at her cards. “Not a bad idea either.”

“In what world is that a good idea?” Will gestured at the pile.

Clifford didn’t answer. Will groaned and waved a hand in front of his face. When he didn’t react, he shrugged. “Happens sometimes.”

“What does?” Cordelia asked quietly, moving her cards back to her hand while keeping an eye on the older Taylor twin.

“I dunno.” Will shrugged and reached for the instructions once more. “I just know he leaves the building for a while, then just continues like nothing happened.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Clifford finally answered his twins question.

“So!” Will made a quite obvious attempt at an distraction. “We each present our Doomsday Device and Escape Plan, pay the materials, inventions, brain and brawn points, then move a henchman along the victory point scale at the sides of the board. Sound easy enough, starting player starts.” He looked to Cordelia, who had taken the spot when Will tried to block the glass shop.

“Alright then.” She took apart her two mission cards and placed them on the table. “I present: the I.Q.-Reducing Idiotifier! And the truck.”

“Just a truck?” Dennis asked.

“Just a truck.” She nodded. “But! Both are at stage three, with a total of nine brain and 18 brawn points-” she moved down her markers on those tracks to show she had them before displaying all the inventions she had. “- all of these and this shit ton of useful materials!” she placed them all on the table. Clifford and Wirt, who sat next to her, looked everything over and approved it. She got 67 victory points.

Next was Clifford with a Beast Gigantifier and a Carboat. He only had three stages for his Doomsday device, and the second for his Escape Plan.

“Because _someone_ ” he glared at Cordelia “took the last invention I needed.”

He still got up to 57 points.

Dennis Death Ray gave him 40 Victory points on stage 3, and his Hovercraft added 30 more. After Wirt had shown his cards, he had his 65 victory points and was in third place. Cordelia and Will shared the second place and Clifford was way behind them due to not getting up to the third stage.

“Now, the first time inventors and the direct-effect inventions.” Will looked his over. “I got nine from these.”

“Four.” Cordelia announced and placed her card back on top of its deck.

They all tallied up their points, and Will and Wirt both managed to get ahead of Cordelia. They moved on to the social track. Will did a sort of evil cackle and pointed at the last stage, which read ‘A proper engagement’.

“Guys, me and Wirt are engaged.” He laughed and Cordelia immediately joined in.

“That is _not_ what it says!” Wirt protested.

“Shut up, Will.” Clifford nudged his brother's shoulder.

“Yeah,” Cordelia calmed down a little. “Wirt clearly isn’t interested.”

“Oh well.” The semi-blonde shrugged. “I’ll just find myself a better boyfriend. Or girlfriend.” He frowned and looked up at the ceiling in a sort of distracted fashion.

“Oh my god, Will!” Cordelia suddenly beamed at him. “You _have_ to tell me first if you’re ever gonna out yourself, kay?”

“Uuh, Sure.” He shrugged with a confused look on his face. 

“Just put it in the Triple F.”

“The what now?” Wirt frowned. This whole talk about interest and outing and boy or girlfriends was somewhat awkward to him, so he jumped at a chance to change the subject.

“Out WhatsApp group. I’ll add you in later.” Will explained.

“And we won’t have to change the group name since four and five start the same.” Cordelia agreed.

They distributed the points for the three tracks that were left.

“Woah.” Cordelia looked down at her figurine on the 78 points spot. Right behind her was Clifford with 77. “I just barely didn’t loose.”

“Great. And I didn’t even just barely win.” Will grumbled. He had gotten a total of 102 victory points.

“And the winner is…” Dennis waved a hand at Wirt. “The guy who said he only plays Monopoly, with a whooping 120 points. Congrats.” He cleaned his henchman off its place on the 96.

“…so.” Will started. “Movie?”


	7. Snow and Thunder - Christmas Special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE!
> 
> Have a little christmas interlude :D  
> And just as a note, this takes place before the accident and is not something Clifford remembers right now. (As of Chapter 25 - EVERYBODY.)
> 
> It's mainly fluff though <3
> 
> Happy Holidays!  
> Holly~♥

 „Willard?“

A quiet voice whispered.

“Are you awake?”

No answer.

Cliff sighed and scooted over to the ladder on his bed. He found the ladder in the darkness and climbed down. The boy walked over to the window and hopped up on their drawing table to look outside.

No snow.

He frowned. It had gotten really cold last week, but mom and dad had said it was still too warm for snow. Sadly, it seemed they were right.

There were photos of the four of them when he and Willard were babies, where they were on a mountain that was covered in white. It looked so beautiful. He sighed. He had really hoped that perhaps they could see snow on Christmas this year.

Instead, there were some stray leaves and big dark puddles covering the street, and while the decorations on the houses looked nice, it wasn’t quite right.

At least he had tomorrow to look forward to. He smiled and looked up at the sky. But like every year, he couldn’t see a single flying reindeer or sleighs.

As he kept watch, he wondered what Santa might bring this year. He had wished for a book about nature, now that he could finally read it himself. Cliff was really good at reading, but Willard was better in math. They helped each other, so they could both do well in school. Their first year was now half-way over and they had learned so much already, surely they would learn even more the next year. And the year after that. He smiled softly and traced snowflake shapes into the fog his breath had made on the window. They only stayed for a short while, but then again, so did real snow. So this was a little closer.

Today had been nice, they had had a large dinner and there had been so many leftovers, dad said they would be able to last from that alone until Easter. Cliff was sure he was lying. Or ‘bending the truth’. Because lying is bad and a serious thing and that was just a joke, so it’s not that serious.

Cliff hummed and hopped back down, carefully, so his socked feet would only make the tiniest of noises. He didn’t want to wake Willard up after all.

Quickly, he clambered up the ladder and buried himself under his sheets, hugging close Stag Prince.

“Do you think we’ll get to have snow next year?” he mumbled into the plushies soft fur.

After a while, he began to hum softly, a slow Christmas song he had played on the violin earlier. He hadn’t been playing for that long and only very recently got better at making it sound nice, but he had really wanted to play this one for his family, so he had begged the teacher to help him study that as a surprise.

As he hummed, his voice was slowly replaced by the sounds of his instrument.

Outside, rain began to fall.

 

\-----------------

 

Cliff awoke the next morning to the booming and roaring of a thunderstorm. He immediately sat up in bed and clutched Stag Prince to his chest.

‘Why? Why on Christmas?!’ from his spot on the bed he looked through the window at the storm, glaring as though it had come just to scare him and rub it in that it was too warm for the far more pretty and silent snow.

He stuck his tongue out and then shakily climbed down to hide in the Cave, pulling his blanket along. The Cave was a great thing to have. Both of their beds had an underneath, but Willard kept his open and put some of his stuff there, while Cliff had put up curtains and filled his Cave with snuggly blankets, two thin old mattresses from their baby beds, and several cuddly toys for company. He darted into the Cave and pulled the curtains shut.

‘Who cares.’ He buried himself under blankets and toys, all the while never letting go of Stag Prince.

Outside, the thunder cracked and he jolted. That was way too much noise for any morning, much less Christmas morning!

And stupid Willard was still asleep, of course, because he could sleep through the end of the world if he wanted to.

The six-year-old tensed and opened the curtains a bit from where he was curled up. There. Willard was still there, asleep, and no end of the world. A light flickered over their room, and immediately after, another thunder shook him.

He gasped and withdrew back into his blanket pile. He had felt that one inside, like it had taken his heart and shook it around.

The door to their room opened. “Cliff? Sweetheart?” His mom’s voice sounded. He wanted to reply, but only a choked whimper escaped him. She knew where he was anyways. Mom bent down and nudges the curtains aside. “Can I join you?” she looked him over. “O mysterious blanket pile with the face of my son?”

He giggled quietly and nodded. Mom crawled inside the Cave and sat down next to him. She was still in her pyjamas, just like him.

“So, would you like to tell me why you have taken my child’s face? He needs that back I’m afraid to say.”

He giggled again, the thunder roaring in the background now bothering him a little less. It still made him frown when it returned.

“Why does it have to be on Christmas?” he pouted.

“Did it scare you a lot?”

He shook his head. “Nuh-uh. I’m in school now, I can’t be scared of storms anymore. I have to be brave.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Mom dug him out of his blanket pile and held him close, draping his comforter over them both. “It’s okay to be scared of things. Everyone is.”

“Even you?”

“Of course. I am scared of moths, did you forget that?”

He laughed. “I thought you just didn’t like them?” Mom always asked Dad to take them outside when one of them found their way inside. “They’re just butterflies that lost their colours.”

“How does a butterfly lose its colours?” Mom asked, interested.

“Hmm.” He thought. “Well, colours are fun, right?”

“Yes?”

“So perhaps, they are just sad. Sad butterflies. And, and being asleep during the day makes it worse, because they really want to see the sun again, that’s why they fly into the light all the time! So they can be happy and get their colours back.” He explained.

Mom laughed. “That sounds like a nice story. I’m still scared of them, but that’s fine, because you know what?”

“What?”

“If I am scared of them, I can be brave by facing them. Head on!” she tickled him.

“Heeheehee!” Cliff laughed and pushed her away. “So I can be scared of thunder and still be brave?”

“Of course.”

He thought for a moment, then he peeked out into the room, to look at the storm. Then he retreated back inside.

He took a deep breath and looked seriously at his mom.

“Can we go outside?”

She looked surprised, but then smiled and nodded.

They silently left the room, so as to not wake Willard, then they went downstairs and put in boots and jackets over their pyjamas and then mom shooed him out the front door.

 

He could immediately feel the wind and rainwater pulling at his thick pyjama pants, and was suddenly very happy about the warmer winter pyjamas that often left him feeling way _too_ warm at night.

It was cold.

It was windy.

It was wet.

And yet-

**_KRRAAACK_ **

At the same time a lightning bolt lit up the sky, the thunder roared over their house.

He could feel his feet wanting to run back inside, but instead, he took a deep breath and-

“RRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

He roared right back. Beside him, his mom chuckled and joined in.

All of a sudden, he felt much bigger than he was.

They waited for the next lightning bolt and again they screamed back at it.

The next thunder was quieter than the last, and came later than the lightning.

He couldn’t tell for how long they stood there, but after a couple more lightning bolts, mom picked him up and then carried him back inside.

She helped him take off his shoes and quickly fetched a towel from the bathroom. His mom took his sopping wet and cold pyjamas off his hands and wrapped him in the big fluffy towel. The warmth of it told him it had been hanging to dry over the radiator. He hummed and buried his face in it.

Mom laughed and led him into the kitchen, where she made him a hot chocolate.

“Ah-ah!” she scolded when she caught him trying to peek through the curtain they had put up over the doorframe to the living room. “No peeking!”

As he drank his hot chocolate, mom left for a short while to get changed as well, and bring him some clothes too. He was tempted to peek, but then he told himself to wait for Willard. It was more fun to peek together.

By the time Cliff had gotten changed and emptied his cup, mom had set the breakfast table with lots of different and tasty looking things. There was some bread, ham, cheese, milk and cereal were on the table as well and there were glasses with vegetables sliced to look like little sticks in them. He wasn’t too fond of cucumber, but there were also carrots and bell peppers, some apple slices…

Now, mom was preparing something at the stove and he was sure it was some eggs and bacon. They always had a big breakfast on Christmas, so they had to eat their dinner very early the day before. Otherwise, they would probably all explode from all the food.

“Sweetheart, can you go and wake Willard up? I think we can eat soon.”

“Okay.” He jumped down from his chair, then paused in the door. “Can we wake Dad up too?”

“I think your dad is already up. Go look in the study?”

Cliff pouted. It was fun to wake dad up, he never wants to, just like Willard. Despite that, he went to tell dad that breakfast was almost ready and got a distracted sounding ‘yes-yes’ as an answer. Mom would probably have to try again later. He shrugged to himself and went upstairs to wake Willard.

Outside, the sun was shining and the storm had passed.

 

\----------------

 

 

Their family had just finished breakfast and the moment mom had slowly swallowed the last of her food and declared she was done, Willard had bolted from the chair and through the curtain to the living room.

Cliff and Willard had peeked earlier, but as usual, Santa was long gone and the presents were already there. It was still amazing, but it would have been better if Santa had been late and they could have met him.

Now, they were all sitting in a circle in front of the tree and dad brought out a big dice that barely fit into Cliff’s or Willard’s hands.

“Now, you remember the rules?” he asked with a big grin.

“If we get a six we can open a presentyesYESgiveit!” Willard blurted and reached for the dice.

“Hmm, I think Cliff gets the dice first this year. I heard he was very brave this morning.”

Cliff nodded. “Yes! I was! Mom was there too, she saw it.”

“What happened?” Willard asked.

“There was a thunderstorm!” Cliff exclaimed.

“But you are scared of thunderstorms, how does that mean you were brave?”

“You know,” Mom began to explain. “being brave means to face something you are afraid of, just as much as it means facing something difficult. Cliff went outside with me and we faced the storm. Do you think that isn’t brave?”

Willard shook his head harshly, an awed expression on his face. “That is super-brave!” he nodded to dad. “He can go first. That _is_ amazing.”

Sadly, even though he got to go first, he didn’t get a six. In fact, after a few rounds, the first one of them to roll a six was Willard. “Yay!” he yelled and jumped up to pick a present. After carefully looking at the tags and reading them out-

‘We can read the tags by ourselves now, isn’t this great?!’ Cliff beamed.

\- Willard picked a medium sized one wrapped in blue paper with green stripes on it. He returned to their circle and tore into the wrapping paper, which dad took and carelessly tossed it behind him.

Willard’s first present was a game they had played at the big game convention in Europe a few months ago. They went there every year and always found things to wish for from Santa, because mom and dad never bought all the games they thought were good.

After a couple more rounds, he got to pick out a present. The one he picked felt like a book and when he unwrapped it, it _was_ a book. A book about plants and how to identify them. Dad could only barely keep him from reading it right away.

As the evening progressed and the pile of discarded wrapping paper grew behind their parents, he got a second book, this one about animal tracks. Sadly, they had no snow where they could be seen, but sometimes he saw them in the mud in the forest near the school. There was also a game for him as well, and another book, but this one was full of really funny pictures that moved. ‘’Optical Illusions.” Dad called them. Also, Will got a chemistry set for kids and both of them got a Lego set. 

After unwrapping all their presents, they all watched Rudolph before the boys spend the rest of the day in the living room and the kitchen, playing with their new toys, reading together and playing the games they got.

Around the time mom was starting to make their dinner, a lot of it from yesterday, Cliff was sitting in front of the sliding door in the living room that led to the garden.

The clouds were gone by now, and even though the window pane was cold, the puddles outside were decidedly not frozen at all.

Cliff sighed.

Perhaps next year, they would get to see some snow. His gaze fell on the book he got about animal tracks. There were a lot of hard words in there. But perhaps, maybe, next year, when he was in second grade and would learn harder words and it would snow, he could actually put it to good use.

Cliff smiled and turned away from the window. He took his illusion book and sat down with Willard. He would probably prefer the book with fewer words anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...mainly fluff AND foreshadowing. Whoops ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	8. New Years Special - You can have it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAAAARR!! (/OoO)/~♥
> 
> Have some more of baby-Cliff being scared of loud noise!
> 
> feat. Dad Taylors old college lamp
> 
> Whooo!
> 
> Holly~♥

**BOOOM!**

**Crackle-Crackle**

 

The sky was full of colourful sparkling dots of flames.

 

**BA-BOOM!**

**Crickle-Crickle-Crack**

Willard was standing in the front yard of their house, craning his neck to look up to the fireworks.

Their neighbours were all outside, everyone chatting and celebrating the new year. Their parents had invited over a lot of their friends, and after they had all counted down to zero earlier, Willard had been the first to drink up his grown-up glass of apple juice (him and Cliff only got the grown-up glasses, not the grown-up drinks, but it was still cool) and rush to the door to get outside. He’d grabbed a big pack of fireworks and had been calling dad to hurry up and get outside as well.

Dad had lit up a sparkler for him, so he had run around for a while with that, until the rest of their guests had come outside as well.

 

**Squeee-ueee  Squeee**

**BOOM-BOOM-BA-BOOM!**

 

Several fireworks went off at once, one from their front yard, two from their neighbours across the street and another one set off by his friend Cordy.

He grinned and ran over to her.

“Cordy!”

“Willard! Happy New Year!”

“You too!” he yelled over the noise in the background. “How did you convince your parents to light a big firework by yourself?!”

She grinned and held up a burnt out sparkler while she pointed towards her mom with her other hand. “Not allowed to play with fire, but if someone is watching me, I can do it with a sparkler!”

That made sense. He nodded.

“Where is Cliff?!” she asked.

Oh.

Willard looked around. There were a lot of grown-ups in the streets, he could barely see the few kids that were outside. But then again…

“He doesn’t like the noise!” he explained. He thought back to a week ago, when Cliff had told him of how brave he’d been when facing the storm in the morning. “I’m going to look for him!”

“Okay! Have fun!” Cordy nodded and ran back to her parents to ask them to light another sparkler.

That gave Willard an idea.

He ran around their home to the back yard and looked over the porch to find something he could use.

Watering can, no. A flower pot? Not that either. A glass with sand, maybe? Or perhaps…

Willard’s eyes fell on a dark shape. He pulled it out of the shadows and brushed off some cobwebs. Perfect.

Now.

He ran back around the house to his dad.

“Dad?!” he called.

“Yes, Willard?” Dad bent down to him. “What have you got there?”

“I want to take some sparklers inside for me and Cliff. Can I put them in here?” he held up the lantern he found.

Dad made a face. “Uff, sorry Willard. That won’t work.” When he saw his face fall, Dad patted his shoulder to placate him. “But hey, you know what? Come along!” he stood and led him back into the house, and then into the basement.

“It should be around here somewhere…” he mumbled as he looked through a box. “Aha!” he pulled out a bottle and waved his son over.

Willard watched him do something with whatever was in the bottle and the old lantern. “What is that?”

“Lantern oil. This one is pretty old by now, it used to be mine when I was in college.” He chuckled. “But it should still work.” He pulled out his lighter and fumbled a little with it before the lantern lit up.

“Woah!”

“Yep.” He nodded and closed the latch at the front. “This one doesn’t work without the oil, so if it goes out at any point, come get me and I’ll refill it for you two. Just be careful. Don’t run with it and don’t open the front of it, or the fire could get outside.”

Willard nodded and beamed. “Thanks, dad!” he called and was about to run upstairs when he reminded himself of what he’d just been told. He slowed down after about two steps of running and walked upstairs carefully. By now, the sounds of the fireworks were loud enough to even reach them in the basement.

He made his way to the second floor and opened the door to their room.

“Cliff?” he walked over to his twins bed and knocked on the bed post. “Can I come in?”

An affirmative whimper answered him.

He pushed the curtains aside, careful to keep them away from the lantern, and joined his twin in his Cave. He always hid down here when it was loud outside or he was scared.

“Look what I got us!” he smiled at the mound of blankets that contained his brother. “You don’t have any light down here, right?” he placed the lantern on the small table next to the flat mattresses. It only held a few sweets, his twin’s piggy bank and a few music sheets.

“Where did you get that?” Cliff whispered, peeking out from the blankets.

“From the backyard. It used to be dads.” He explained.

“It looks nice.”

The two of them watched the flames dance behind the tiny glass window in the lantern, but Cliff still flinched whenever there was a particularly loud firework going off outside.

“You know-” Willard started, trying to distract Cliff. “Dad told me it uses oil to burn. And if the oil runs out, the flame will go out.”

Seeing his brothers interested look, he added: “So if it does, we have to call him so he can give it more oil.”

Cliff nodded and scooted closer to him before throwing one of his blankets over Willard as well. The two boys sat there in silence for a couple of moments before Willard began to hum a soft little lullaby their mother always sang to them.

He could feel Cliff relaxing, and after a while, he hummed along with him. They cuddled together and Willard noticed that it was actually growing a little warmer in the Cave. He couldn’t quite tell whether it was because of the blankets or the fire of the lantern.

 

\-----------------------------

 

The fireworks were over.

At some point, mom had come inside, fretting. She had started to scold them for running off, but then Dad came in and told her he knew they were there. Then she nagged at him for that for a short while before sighing.

“I had thought you were outside, over at Cordelia’s. I couldn’t find you and I was scared for you. I’m sorry for snapping at you two.” She apologized.

“I’m sorry I hid.” Cliff mumbled. “I tried to be brave, but it was too loud, so I went back inside.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” She hugged Cliff, then pulled Willard into the hug as well. “You don’t need to be brave all the time. Just tell me when it gets too much, alright?”

Willard could feel Cliff nod beside him.

“And it looks like my old lantern found a new home.” Dad chuckled. “If you want to, you can have it.”

Cliff grinned and nodded. “It’s great, it actually makes the Cave warmer!”

So it wasn’t just the blankets.

“Of course, there is _real_ fire in there.” Dad said in a warning voice. “I’ll need to teach you two how to use it properly. Also, don’t light it up if there are no adults around, okay? We don’t need you two burning down the house.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Cliff shook his head.

Their parents laughed. “We know that, dear.” Mom giggled and Dad waved him over to the cave.

“First lesson.” He started and pointed through the open curtains. “Don’t leave an open flame with no supervision.” He waved them over and showed them how to open the lamp so they could see the fire. “So always make sure it’s out when you leave it, especially around flammable things like paper, cloth and wood.” He blew out the flame.

Will nodded. He probably wouldn’t use it much anyways, but it was probably still a good thing to know, in case Cliff forgot to blow it out. “Just like candles, right?”

“Exactly. Fire safety is important!” Dad stressed before he shut the lantern again and closed the curtains to the cave. “Now off to bed you two, it’s way too late for little boys like you to be up!”

He picked up Clifford and heaved him up on the top step of the ladder that was attached to the side of his bed.

They told each other good night and pretty soon, the two boys were lying in their beds, tired from their long night.

“Willard?”

“Hm?” he opened his eyes blearily and peaked over at his twin.

“Thank you.” Cliff mumbled. “For keeping me company.”

“No problem, I’ll always be there for you.” Willard promised.

And then, sleep came over him and he dreamt of a warm cave full of colourful but quiet fires exploding around him.


	9. Oh god why...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A (very) short snippet of what Bill is doing nowadays.
> 
> Takes place somewhere around Chapter 32 - 'Listen, this is important'.
> 
> Sorry this is a little short, but it literally *just* came to me and I had to put this somewhere.
> 
> Enjoy!  
> Holly~♥

**He had been silent most of the day, simply exploring the depths of his half of the mind he occupied – as if he hadn’t done so extensively when Will had been asleep, or even when he was still unaware of his presence.**

**Still, there were quite a few things that had changed. Ever since waking up, he’d had his work cut out for him trying to keep all the unwanted** feelings **out of his mind. There was so much at first that he’d been pretty overwhelmed and he was sure he had been changed by it _somehow_ , he just had yet to see in what way.**

**There was a clear distinction, between his half and Will’s, a sort of barrier in place between the two similar but very different minds. It had come as quite the surprise to him, that once Will awoke, his mind had reshaped to come closer to what he’d done with his half of the place. Now, there was a single forest stretching out on either side, each with their own little touches of the one in charge of that area.**

**Really, he wouldn’t even have any reason at all to explore if not for the little-**

**There was one!**

**He pushed the** _Affection_ , **which** **had taken shape as a little floating teddy bear back over to Will’s side.**

Feelings **could come in any size shape or form and he much preferred the bigger ones, since they were easier to spot and bat back over than that _slow_ trickling that happened much more regularly. **

**So, his exploration was more of a clean-up.**

**He still kept an eye on the happenings outside during his clean-up’s and usually nothing happened, but apparently, today he’d been quiet enough that** Will felt alone enough to …. do some research. **Since he was using Will’s mind to have his own** emotions **, he couldn’t quite tell if the sudden** _Mischievousness_ **came from one or the other, but really it didn’t matter.**

**‘What are you up to?’**

“Eeeek!” Will slammed his laptop shut, red as a tomato. “OH MY GOD! WHY?!”

**‘What? I was just asking what you were doing.’**

Will had his face buried in his hands now. ‘NEVER do that! Oh god, why….’

**‘If you do this type of stuff, it would be great to give me a heads up, kid. I don’t want anything to do with this, so I can just leave you to do your thing-’**

“…why…”

**‘- push away anything unsavoury that finds its way over to my side-’ he really didn’t want any of that mucking up his mind, thank you. ‘- and everybody wins. Deal?’**

‘Yes please go now.’

**Cackling, Bill retreated into the depths of their mind and shut off the connection he had to the senses of Will’s body.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you catch my drift, here


	10. Protection, Kindness and Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> A little late, but still Wednesday (where I'm at, at least ^_^')  
> I hope you enjoy, even though it's short.
> 
> Holly~♥

The second time he went with Mabel to meet the rest of her friends, Dipper was decidedly less uncomfortable than he had been last week.

Going around the funhouse with his sister and Will had actually been a lot of fun and he had started to feel pretty bad already, but then he had been verbally decimated by both Clifford and Wirt – although technically, they were right, he’d been acting like a dick.

At the beginning of the week, he’d still been nervous about letting Mabel go with Clifford but hadn’t said anything. She’d known anyway and had thanked him afterwards for not nagging her to stay. He could admit that he’s gotten very protective over the years.

And there had been so many things about Will that first day that made all his alarm bells ring. But after all this time – had it really been only two months? – he couldn’t even tell if he’d imagined that- …. something… when Will had flipped out.

Or the other Will, apparently. He should really read up on personality disorders.

As the week progressed, he found that Will and Mabel were actually a lot alike in some ways, and he also got along well with Dennis and Wirt. Dipper figured he may have gotten along better with Clifford too, if the other hadn’t been so keen on keeping him at arm’s length.

And despite the lingering traces of distrust between the two of them, the barbeque had been really fun. Probably only because they hadn’t had time to talk one-on-one.

“See you guys on Monday.” Will said his goodbyes.

It was just a little after 2 AM, and they had already called one of their parents to pick them up. Dennis had already left and once the twins left with Cordelia, it would just be Wirt, Mabel and him.

“I’m gonna miss you!” Cordy hugged Mabel.

Dipper raised a brow at her. “You have improv on Sunday.”

“Pfft!” she made a dismissive sound and waved him off before heading for the door. “Bye!”

After they left, the three moved into the kitchen and tried to squeeze in some of the very few remaining snacks. Greg had helped a lot with that at first, but he had gone to bed after the first movie.

“So, how long have you been friends with them?” Mabel asked Wirt.

“Only since school started. I think you’ve been friends with Cordelia before that, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.” She shrugged in what Dipper knew to be an evasive manner. “But we only had improv together, we didn’t really hang out like we do now.”

“Well, you still know her better than I do.” Wirt joked.

Dipper smiled wryly to himself. As twins, they had been there for a lot of each other’s crushes and there had been _a lot_. By now, both knew when the other was going bananas over someone.

Mabel wasn’t quite at that stage, but he knew her well enough to see that she might be having an epiphany sometime in the near future.

He just hoped it would go well for once.

“You know, we could do a study date this week.” Wirt suggested.

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Dipper agreed. “Depends on who is there, though. I don’t think Cordelia or Will are the people that study a lot.”

“Which is really weird if you think about it.” Wirt frowned. “I mean, Will has been in a coma, right? So he should have, like, the mental state of an eight-year-old. And then he doesn’t have to study his butt off to just _be_ in our grade?”

“Perhaps he’s cheating.” Mabel replied with a laugh.

Another thing that had been nagging him. He hadn’t approached her about it yet, but he felt she was being just the slightest bit vindictive towards Will every now and then lately. He didn’t know why or if she even realized it. She was still getting along well with him, so these kinds of remarks threw him for a loop.

“He doesn’t seem like the type to do that.” He said.

“Nah, you’re right, Dip-Dop. Apparently, the doctor’s wanted to keep them at the hospital, because both their brains were all way too developed or something. Delia told me.”

Wirt made a thoughtful humming sound.

“What is it?” Mabel asked. “I know that face from Dipper, what’s up with you?”

“I- uh! Nothing!” Wirt went red.

“Oooooh! I know that face too.” Mabel's face fell, but she managed to keep a small, but sad smile on her face. “You have a crush.”

“Oh god, no!” Wirt waved his hands around. “I was just thinking of this conversation I had with Clifford- don’t look at me like that!” he slapped a hand over his face when Mabel’s grin returned full force.

“Hey, it’s okay, we won’t judge.” Dipper joined the teasing.

“It’s not _like_ that! He just said some things-”

“Ouh la la!” Mabel made.

“-about the whole frog thing- and it was bothering me, nothing more.”

“Dude, the frog thing is awesome!” His twin exclaimed. “I mean, we’ve seen a lot of weird stuff, but that’s cool too. A frog that makes a ringing noise only those can hear who have nearly died. That would make a great addition to the Shack, right?”

“Definitely sound like something Grunkle Stan would come up with. He would probably have just used a normal frog, though.” He laughed. “But perhaps we can mention the idea to Soos, I’m sure he’d be ecstatic.”

“You’re not freaked out by that at all.” Wirt's eyes darted from one to the other.

“Nah.” Dipper shrugged. “Like she said, we’re used to strange things. Although it is a little concerning to know that everyone except Dennis has had a near-death experience.”

Wirt shook his head. “No, not a _near_ -death experience.” He paused for a moment and sighed. “Greg’s frog swallowed a bell two years ago in a p-place that’s… I-I think… perhaps- that it was- I mean-….” He took a deep breath. “I believe it may have been limbo.”

“Woah, really!” Mabel’s jaw dropped. “That is so cool, you have to tell us what happened! You must have actually died then, right?”

Wirt looked absolutely bewildered. “And to think it took me so much to say it.” he mumbled before clearing his throat and continued, eyes on the kitchen floor. “Well, we were almost run over by a train and then fell into a lake. I’m pretty sure we nearly drowned. The next thing I know, me and Greg are lost in a forest. That’s where we got that bell.” He looked up again. “You really aren’t fazed at all.”

“I was possessed by an elderly ghost couple once.” Mabel said. “Also, kidnapped by gnomes that wanted me to marry them and become gnome queen, we travelled through time, fought a candy monster and unicorns and….” She trailed off with a frown, before shrugging and adding: “So yeah, that’s pretty standard.”

At Wirt’s stunned and disbelieving glance at him, Dipper shrugged as well. “Yeah, it’s calmed down a lot, but that’s our basic summer vacation.”

“I would love to pronounce you crazy, but I really can’t talk, can I?”

“Nope.” Mabel popped the ‘p’. “But hey, it’s fine, we won’t tell.”

Somewhere behind them, the doorbell rang. His sister jumped up from her seat, hugged Wirt and dashed off to the door while Dipper stayed behind.

“But, err, it would be great if you didn’t tell anyone about it either?” he asked quietly. “Our parents don’t know, and I think they wouldn’t let us go to Gravity Falls anymore if they did.”

Wirt nodded. “Sure.”

On his way home, Dipper wondered why Mabel hadn’t included Bill in the list of things they’d faced in Gravity Falls.

But perhaps that would have been a little much for Wirt.


	11. Oops, almost forgot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> As per request, here we have that conversation Cordelia had with Mabel in Chapter 39 - Family (from every angle)!  
> Thank you Ace, for asking, I wanted to write this but I was just lacking that little bit of motivation xD
> 
> And whoops I spoiled Mabels outfit xD  
> I put a link of the inspiration at the end, so you can make your own picture before dismissing the inspiration for it ;P
> 
> Enjoy!  
> Holly~♥

What’s better than starting off the weekend by binge-watching some anime?

Doing just that for an entire day undisturbed.

Really, Cordelia considered herself lucky her parents hadn’t asked her to do anything except to help clean up after breakfast. By the time she thought to check the time, she realized she legit hadn’t moved for five hours! She whistled and logged off her Crispyroll account before standing to stretch.

If they hadn’t had breakfast so late, she would have wondered about lunch, but on the weekends, her family mostly just had a breakfast that was closer to lunchtime and a late lunch that was more of a dinner.

They liked to sleep in.

She felt like talking to someone, and after a little bit of consideration, she was about to ask Will what he was up to, but remembered that they had they were probably bombarded by relatives right now. She sighed and slumped on her bed.

The redhead laughed softly. “Great transition there, from the beanbag to bed. Urgh, I need to go out more.”

Despite telling herself that every week or so, she knew she was more of an indoor person most of the time. Those weekly outings had been sort of uncomfortable at the beginning, but by now she was happy to say that she’d grown used to going out more. Just not _all_ the time.

She heard her phone call out weakly from where she’d lost it in her beanbag while watching TV. Groaning, she stood again to check who was trying to reach her.

 

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:22 PM:** Hey, what are you up to rn?

 **Deli-chan, 4:23 PM:** Watching anime, and you? :3

 

She grinned. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who was looking for someone to talk to.

_“You know what, I’ll talk to Mabel about this.”_

Oh. She knew she’d forgotten _something_! She quickly opened a chat with Will, despite the fact that he was probably busy, she felt like she had to apologize. She just _knew_ she would have totally blanked on this completely.

 

 **Deli-chan, 4:23 PM:** Whoops, amlost forgot to clear the Babybel thing up.

She tapped the send button, then she saw the tell-tale sign of all the buttons on her phone lighting up before it died on her.

“Fuck. Please tell me the text went out.” In the back of her mind, she was freaking out that she just left two conversations at once without notice, while the bigger part of her reasoned that WhatsApp would tell them that she was offline and hadn’t read their messages.

Which would make it look like she was ignoring them.

“Yeah, no.” She jumped up and began looking for her charger, leaving her phone on the bed. Since she loved to read fanfiction on her phone at school, she had made a habit out of taking the charger with her, so she could charge at the few empty sockets that the students could use. The result of that was sadly that there were several places where it could be.

After searching her backpack, sports bag and downstairs at the charging station (basically just a power strip with a fuckton of different chargers on it), she found it plugged in next to her night table. It had just slipped off and gotten lost behind it.

“I hate you.” She moaned and jammed it into her phone. Then she spent the next few minutes periodically tapping on it to see if it had recharged enough to turn on again.

Finally, she was back in. Her text _had_ been sent out and she was a little pissed that all this stress had been only seven minutes long.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 4:25 PM:** I’m sewing! What do you think would go better with this?

 

Following that message were two pictures of the same dress. Mabel had taken the front piece of the skeleton shirt and had added a black silk-looking skirt and used some sheer black fabric to add some trails along the arms. The only difference was that one dress had purple flowers next to the shoulder straps, while the other had red ones.

 

 **Deli-chan, 4:30 PM:** I think the red ones? More passionate ;D

Immediately after pressing send, she screamed into her pillow. Whenever she dared to try and flirt with her, she felt like she’d gone too far this time, for sure. But as always, the reply was both relieving and disappointing.

 

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:30 PM:** Dipper is going with red accents too, I think that’ll fit! Thanks ♥

That was another frustrating thing. Did Babybel send hearts to everyone? Or just to certain people? Cordelia had seen her send others hearts before, but she had no idea who that had been. The brunette was definitely the type that would send hearts to everyone in her texts. And the few times she sent a heart back, she never knew how the other would take it.

She sighed and changed chats to tell Will she was on it, then sent another text to Mabel.

**Deli-chan, 4:30 PM:** Um, hey?

 **Deli-chan, 4:30 PM:** I don’t wanna interrupt you or anything, but I wanted to ask something.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:30 PM:** I’m due for a break anyhow, so shoot!

After a moment of consideration, Cordelia decided to go a less direct way. Calling her out on her behaviour would probably make Babybel feel bad. And then _she_ would feel bad for making her crush feel bad.

**Deli-chan, 4:31 PM:** Did you have a fight with Will or something? You aren’t talking to each other that much anymore. :(

Waiting for the reply was nerve-wracking, and she hoped she had put it as neutral as possible. She saw the _‘Babybel_ _♥_ _is typing…’_ note appear and disappear several times before it stayed for a longer time.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 4:33 PM:** or something I guess. I didn’t think I acted differently, do you think anyone has noticed? I still like Willard, I just… it’s hard to talk about, but I guess I got scraed by his other personality.

 **Deli-chan, 4:33 PM:** Wirt noticed, at least, if he hadn’t told me I would have thought I was imagining things. And you’re not acting tHAT weird, just… you guys talk less.

 **Deli-chan, 4:34 PM:** Also, why are you calling him by his full name? I would have thought the dominant personality is the one that wants to be called Will, so wouldn’t it be better to call the other one Willard?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:35 PM:** You weren’t there, but on the first day, that other one was very close to attacking dipper and it was really terrifying. Then something like that happened a few weeks ago and... I just feel like that isn’t Willard, so it shouldn’t be called either of those names.

 

Since she had only really gotten the twins view of that event, she hadn’t really questioned her friends – and she was not going to now – but she hadn’t seen Will’s other personality herself _at all_. At times, she’d even forget he had a split personality in the first place, which was not how it was supposed to work as far as she knew.

**Deli-chan, 4:37 PM:** Okay, hey, I get that, sorta. I wasn’t there and I haven’t seen the secondary personality so dar, so I really don’T know what hes like.

 **Deli-chan, 4:37 PM:** But it still feels rude to call him and IT.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:37 PM:** I know, I didn’t mean that. Sorry.

 **Deli-chan, 4:37 PM:** Can’t you tell me what exactly happened? I could help.

Waiting for her answer took long enough this time for her to get herself a drink and empty it while she stared at the flickering _‘Babybel_ _♥_ _is typing…’_ , which stayed for several minutes _twice_ before the very disheartening response came.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 4:44 PM:** I don’t want to tlak about it.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:44 PM:** I made a compromise with Willard’s other half. He won’t be showing up again, so nothing will happen.

 **Deli-chan, 4:44 PM:** That can’t be healthy for psychologically, what the hell?!

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:44 PM:** I can’t tell you, but its not hurting him, he’s better off like this. You wouldn’t even belive me why!

 **Deli-chan, 4:45 PM:** Try me.

Cordelia considered being insulted that the other girl didn’t trust her, but that quickly left her mind at the next text, which came far quicker than the others had.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 4:45 PM:** It’s a demon.

Okay.

That was….. okay?

Over the time she’d known Mabel, she had rarely lied to her without _very_ good reason, and combined with her openness and general tendency to tell stories, Cordelia had realized pretty early on that a) Mabel was either crazy, b) she was actually less open and careless about the things she said than she pretended to be, or c) she had actually gotten into contact with some supernatural stuff.

Which ruled.

So far, she hadn’t said anything about it, because she had been sort of worried it had been option b) all along and she was about to get pranked, but now…

And if this was true too, her life had just become soooo much more interesting. So, hell yeah, since she never got to go to Hogwarts, her schedule was free for that.

**Deli-chan, 4:45 PM:** Okay, cool!

 

Her finger hovered over the send button. What else could she say to that?

She groaned and rubbed her hands over her face. “Okay, stop fangirling, these are your RL friends.” And Mabel could be freaking out that she thought she was crazy or something.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 4:47 PM:** Haha, I was joking. Nah, really, it’s nothing, forget it. It’s fine ^_^’

 

“Uh uh, Babybel.” She tsked and shook her head, now knowing exactly what to write.

 

 **Deli-chan, 4:47 PM:** No girl ever writes ‘It’s fine’ when it’s _actually_ fine. So, what’s going on, how dead are we all, is Will going to survive it or is the apocalypse coming?

 **Deli-chan, 4:47 PM:** ‘Cause me and Dennis have a legit plan for that.

 **Deli-chan, 4:48 PM:** You know that the connotation is: ‘I believe that’, right?

 **Deli-chan, 4:48 PM:** Babybel, you’ve literally been talking about gnomes and shit for years, why did you think I wouldn’t believe you?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:48 PM:** I have not!

 **Deli-chan, 4:49 PM:** Not a lot, but here and there, offhand comments about cloned boybands and magic and stuff. I was scared you were pranking me, you know, ‘cause I’m such adweeb for that stuff ^-^’

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:49 PM:** Oh god, don’t tell Dipper that. We agreed not to tlak about it.

 **Deli-chan, 4:49 PM:** Nah, why would I?

 **Deli-chan, 4:50 PM:** Also, sorry, but back to the main topic? What about Will? You’re saying, he’s possessed or something? How bad is that?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:52 PM:** I don’t even know anymore, that’s the problem! I know the demon is evil and wants to destroy the world, but Will says he isn’t doing anything. But I can’t trust Willard because what if Bill is just manipulating him to get me off their tracks? I’m worried and confused and scared and the best thing I could do was tell Will to block the demon

 **Deli-chan, 4:52 PM:** So, the demons name is Bill? Really? That’s kinda funny, don’t you think?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:52 PM:** That’s one of the things that made me suspicious in the first place, but that isn’t the main point here!  \\(°O°*)/

 **Deli-chan, 4:52 PM:** How does he block him?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:53 PM:** With this necklace he has, the aquamarine. He lsot it at the fair, and then he started to act more like Bill and I confronted them. It was really awful and I have no idea id Will is actually in control or not, so I’m trying to be careful.

 **Deli-chan, 4:53 PM:** Buuut, you just became distant instead. I’m actually pretty sure they noticed by now.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:53 PM:** In that case, neither of them are doing anything about it, but what does that mean? Is it because Bill hates me and doesn’t want to talk to me anyways and is preparing something so it’s better if I’m distant to them, or is it because Will doesn’t want to stress the situation or what if its something entirely different?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:54 PM:** And I don’t wanna tell Dipper cause he’d freak out even more than I am and I’m not even thinking of half the things he woud be thinking off!

 **Deli-chan, 4:54 PM:** Better now?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:55 PM:** Actually, yeah. Sorry.

 **Deli-chan, 4:56 PM:** Don’t be sorry, I’m happy I could be there for you! :D

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:56 PM:** Aww♥

 **Deli-chan, 4:56 PM:** So, the important thing is, Will keeps his necklace on? Seems easy enough. And I wouldn’t worry too much. When did the demon even possess him?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:56 PM:** I don’t know, last I knew, he was supposed to be dead. He got erased five years ago.

 **Deli-chan, 4:56 PM:** 2013? The beginning of The Deathbed?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:57 PM:** Oh, god, now that you’re saying that… We didn’t pay that much attention since so much happened that summer, but yeah, it started just when we got home from Gravity Falls that year. Holy hell. O_O

 **Deli-chan, 4:58 PM:** But yeah, I just meant to say that however long he is possessing Will, wasn’t he already there when you noticed? And if he’s been considered his split personality, then he must have been there since Will and Clifford woke up, right? They’ve been awake for about four months before starting school, I think.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:58 PM:** I get what you’re saying, but that just worries me more, what if it’s _all_ an act, like what if Willard doesn’t even exist anymore and Bill is just playing it like there are two personalities?

 **Deli-chan, 4:59 PM:** I don’t think that. Will is definitely still there. You know, I noticed something else: Sometimes, Clifford acts just like you did the past few weeks. Noticed it the first time a few days ago.

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 4:59 PM:** So you think he told his brother?

 **Deli-chan, 4:59 PM:** And see, there you are, totally convinced that’s Will. He’s still there,okay?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:00 PM:** Right. Thanks… This has been bothering me for awhile.

 **Deli-chan, 5:00 PM:** No problem. So, how crazy will our friends think we are if we try to tell them?

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:00 PM:** Pelase don’t? Dipper would flip his shit that I didn’t talk to him and I think Wirt might faint. He’s so uncomfortable when we talk about supernatural stuff. ^_^’

 **Deli-chan, 5:00 PM:** nah, I won’T xD Dennis wouldn’t listen past ‘Demons exist’, he would get us all into a bunker or something

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:01 PM:** lol what? xDD

 **\-- >Deli-chan, 4:42 PM: **‘Cause me and Dennis have a legit plan for that.

 **Deli-chan, 5:01 PM:** his families house has had their basement enhanced somehow, it’s basiaally a bunker xD

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:01 PM:** Haha xD

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:01 PM:** Thanks again for the talk, I really needed that **♥**

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:02 PM:** Buuuut, I really should get back on the dress, I still have some plans for it ;P

 **Deli-chan, 5:02 PM:** I’m sure you’ll get it done in time for the party :D

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:03 PM:** I’m a bit worried about the party, what if he loses his necklace again? I can’t keep an eye on him all night.

 **Deli-chan, 5:03 PM:** We could go to the party together?

 

Immediately after she sent it, Cordelia felt like punching herself. They’d already agreed to all go together! But Babybel was already typing her reply.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 5:03 PM:** What, you mean like, TOGETHER-together? Or ‘watching-the-demon’-together?

Oh god no, she’d been found out.

She frantically started typing an excuse.

**Deli-chan, 5:03 PM:** I mean, the latter if you’re not interested in the first? I don’t know, or we can just forget this whoel thing an-

She never finished that text.

**Babybel** **♥** **, 5:03 PM:** ‘Cause I’d like that… :3

She deleted her old text and replied as quickly as possible.

**Deli-chan, 5:03 PM:** YES!

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:03 PM:** xD

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:03 PM:** **♥**

 **Deli-chan, 5:03 PM:** ♥

In a near trance, she opened up her chat with Will. She didn’t care about the stuff they just talked about, she just wanted to talk to her best friend.

**Deli-chan, 5:04 PM:** OMG

 **Deli-chan, 5:04 PM:** Will, are you there?

 **Deli-chan, 5:05 PM:** Holy fuck. I can’t believe what just happened.

 

She laid there for a minute or so, and then buried herself under her sheets before pressing her pillow tight against her hammering chest.

A notification brought her back to Babybel.

 

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:07 PM:** So, it’s a date? ;D

 **Deli-chan, 5:07 PM:** Yes, please? ^-^’ ♥

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:07 PM:** Great! :*

 **Deli-chan, 5:08 PM:** Thank you :3 (*^w^*)

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:08 PM:** Nah, thank YOU ;P

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:08 PM:** But I really gotta get back on that dress now, sorry q-q

  **Deli-chan, 5:09 PM:** No problem, I didn’t mean to keep you this long, anyways!

 **Babybel** **♥** **, 5:09 PM:** See you later! ♥

 **Deli-chan, 5:09 PM:** Okay :D ♥

 

Okay, now she seriously needed to talk to her bestie.

 

 **Deli-chan, 5:11 PM:** Dude, my life is turning upside down, I need to talk to you.

 **Willy-Billy, 5:12 PM:** What?

 **Deli-chan, 5:11 PM:** Fucking hell finally

 **Willy-Billy, 5:12 PM:** Did I see you using punctuation there?

 **\-- > Deli-chan, 5:11 PM: **Dude, my life is turning upside down, I need to talk to you.

 **Deli-chan, 5:12 PM:** Like I said.

 **Willy-Billy, 5:12 PM:** so, what?

 **Deli-chan, 5:12 PM:** I did it.

 **Deli-chan, 5:12 PM:** I asked.

 **Deli-chan, 5:12 PM:** She said yes. 

 **Willy-Billy, 5:12 PM:** Holy Fuck, that is great! Congrats!

 **Willy-Billy, 5:12 PM:** Or whatever you say to that xD

 **Deli-chan, 5:12 PM:** I’m so happy rn the world could end and I wouldn’t give a shit

 

Good news was the world didn’t end, but her luck fort he day had apparently run out. Her mother knocked at the door and asked her to come downstairs and help set the table.

She did so with a silly smile on her face, and when her mom asked, she told her outright that she had a date.

And if there was one thing she loved about her mom, it was that in that moment, she merely nodded and told her that she was happy for her, before leaving her to soak in that giddy joy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration for Mabel’s costume: https://www.smiffys.com/products/day-of-the-dead-senorita-costume-with-printed-top


	12. Midnight Calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This POV is a little removed from Piedmont, but still relevant to 'Chapter 43 - Whoops.' taking place right after the end of that chapter.  
> I didn't mention it in that chapters notes yet, because it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing xD  
> Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Holly~♥
> 
> PS: What Dipper does here is not good. If you're ever in a situation like this, tell the adults and get to the hospital, Dipper's scared for a reason!

It was the middle of the goddamn night.

The old man trudges through the home he shares with his twin and answers the phone. Incredible how the other could sleep through that noise.

“What the fuck do you want at this hour?” he grumbled out a greeting.

“Uh, hi Grunkle Stan!” his great-nephew's voice comes from the other end, in a more panicked tone than usual.

“Where’s the fire?” he sighs and grabs the phone to haul it over to his armchair.

“Yeah, um, that. How exactly- I mean, how do I treat alcohol poisoning again?”

This time, Stanley notices the slight slur in the teen's voice, mostly covered up by panic. He lets out a huff when he sits down. “Depends on what you have on hand. Are they still breathing?”

A pause, then a shaky affirmation reaches him. Wherever they are, it is very quiet on the other end, so Stan assumes Dipper might be far off from any professional help. Not that Stan would seek out any grown-ups if _he_ was in the teen's place.

“And we are in a first aid room at school.”

“At school?” he raises an incredulous brow. The places kids these days can get away with drinking.

“Halloween party with spiked punch. Now what do I do? He already threw up, but he passed out. I’ve put him into recovery position – I think – but I don’t know if I’m forgetting something.” He could hear light and fast taps in the background, no doubt the teen was pacing the room.

“So, he’s on his side, chin up, mouth down?”

There’s a moment of shuffling on the other side. “I forgot the chin thing. Thanks, Grunkle Stan.”

“Sound to me like you’re fine. Just keep checking if he’s still breathing.”

“And what do I do if he doesn’t??!!” the nervous reply comes.

“CPR.” He shrugs, despite knowing it won’t be seen.

“Okay. Okayokayokay-”

“You want me to stay on the phone with you?” he leans back in the armchair and grabs a blanket from nearby, settling in for a long night.

“That would be great.”

“Why didn’t you stop him when he was getting drunk?”

“When he had his last drink, he was only very tipsy, then he just skyrocketed after the last drink he had, I have no idea what happened there.”

“That must have been the last drink actually arriving in his system. Does he do that often?”

“No, that was his first time drinking.”

“Pfft, then it’s probably not very bad. Kid’s body was probably just not used to alcohol and gave out on him, still _bad_ , of course. Do you know what it was in the punch?” He asked, thinking of how Dipper always seemed more at ease when he knew exactly how much alcohol was in a drink, and therefore, in his body.

“No idea, but I had five cups and I’m doing okay. He had six I think, one of mine was water, so he must have just kept getting the punch.”

“So, you are mostly fine with five and a cup of water, and he is out with six. I got that right?”

“Yes. I’m still pretty tipsy, though.”

“I gathered. You have water there?”

“Yes, there’s a sink and some cups.” A slight noise of disgust followed.

Stanley chuckled. “Step in something? Guess he couldn’t find a bin.”

“Oh no, he did. He just toppled it over when he passed out.”

At this, the old man laughed heartily.

“It’s not funny, he might be dying!”

He quieted down to ask: “Is he still breathing?”

There was no pause to his reply this time. “Yes, but still!”

“Did you actually check?” he asked sceptically. It wouldn’t do for him to keep watch and just not check.

“Yes, I am.”

“Keep doing that.”

He found himself spending the next three hours on the armchair, talking and reassuring Dipper and generally being a listening ear. Apparently, Will – he got the guy’s name after about ten minutes or so – had been in an accident when he was younger, only waking up from the resulting coma a few months ago. He has no idea if and how that would affect somebody’s alcohol tolerance, so when Dipper asks, he deflects and asks how he’s been. Thankfully, it works and he spends the next hour or so listening to a summary of what’s been going on in his great-nephew's life.

“Sheesh, kid. That was kinda rough on him.” He comments on his most recent course of actions against the other boy.

“I thought you were all _for_ keeping your wits about you.”

“Yeah, but drunkenly yelling at someone after a probably honest confession isn’t the way to go.”

For some reason, Stan had been the second person in the family – and the first adult – who Dipper told he was bisexual. He figured it was a case of not knowing how his parents would react and needing an adult to confirm it would be fine.

“And by the way,” he adds when there is no reply. “usually, drunken confessions are honest. So, unless you fucked it up completely with your outburst, I suggest you apologize and get your shit together.”

“…. Maybe.”

The old man sighs and says in a tone as serious as he can muster. “Listen, I know you’ve had your troubles with _romance_ – I’m starting to think that’s genetic – but if you don’t stop walling yourself in, you might end up like me.” It wasn’t an easy thing to admit, but the kid needed a wake-up call at some point.

Somehow, the topic turned to what he and Ford had been up to the past months, and he tells Dipper a few stories about the freaky stuff they’d seen on their journeys. It was actually lucky that Dipper got them when they had returned to ‘base’ – so to say, as Soos had made sure they would always have a home in the Shack.

At some point, the passed out kid apparently starts mumbling and moving around, and Stan is finally able to convince his great-nephew that he’ll be fine. After apologizing for calling so late and saying his thanks, the teen ends the call.

Too tired to move, Stanley spends the rest of the night in the living room, falling asleep at some point and receiving a fond smile and shake of head from Ford when he comes downstairs for breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, Dipper, call the hospital, I don't care how drunk you or Will are. 
> 
> Why did I write this? It goes against everything I would do! >:O


	13. He's wrong, I'm wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys!  
> Sorry about this past week, I couldn't finish the chapter for the main story in time D:
> 
> However, I did still have this chapter in my reserves, so I hope this will tide you over until Sunday<3  
> Thank you all so much for your support, it's really awesome :D
> 
> This little snippet takes place at the end of Chapter 42 - Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?, you#ll know which part of the chapter.

And to think they’d been enjoying some peace and quiet just minutes before this.

Although Wirt found rushing about checking empty – and sometimes occupied – rooms for their missing friend’s kind of beat staying in the auditorium. At least the hallways didn’t cause him to get a headache.

Clifford had just gotten a message from Dennis that said Will left his phone at the table, and since Dipper seemed unable to answer his phone as well, they had no leads at all. Especially now that they’d finished checking all floors that the students were allowed on.

“We’ll just have to check every floor.” Clifford said before taking hold of Wirt's hand, pulling him towards one of the staircases to the off-limits floors and slowing his pace to sneak upstairs.

Absently, he noted that either his own hands were freakishly tiny, or Clifford just had giant hands. Maybe a bit of both. Also, they were very warm, how in the world did he manage that? In the time they’d been outside, his own hands had turned into mini-popsicles.

And why was he even thinking about this now?

Not really keen on getting caught, Wirt felt the need to mention that they could just wait for the two boys to return in their own time. Still, he let himself get pulled along as they snuck through the first corridor – checking the doors as they went – and up another staircase.

Clifford’s reply was tense. “I don’t know if our tutor exaggerated with his descriptions of what alcohol does, but there are many things that could be happening to Will right now, floating around in my head and none of them are nice.”

He felt a need to reassure Clifford. It couldn’t be that bad, Dipper was still there to watch out. “Don’t worry so much, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Thanks.” Clifford tried another doorknob, and although his body language was still frustrated and tense, at least his tone of voice showed he appreciated the attempt.

He was really rather frazzled. Wirt had a pretty good idea about the protectiveness Clifford felt over his twin – and sometimes he really wondered why that even was – but this was something else. Clifford was focused entirely on the task of finding Will, and he might not have even noticed Wirt here if he wasn’t talking to him.

And with every door that was locked – or open, but empty – the taller of the two grew more restless, more determined, more _silent_. Which Wirt hadn’t really thought was possible, getting more silent than silent, but with every door, he could fell the muscles in Clifford’s hand tense and his demeanour became stormy.

It was actually rather worrying, and he wondered if the other boy even still noticed him here. He put a reassuring smile on his face and tried to get his attention by giving a quick squeeze to the other boy’s hand.

Clifford startled and ripped it away. “Oh, sorry.”

The thought ‘of course he doesn’t want to hold hands’ and _‘now you’re slutting yourself out to that guy?’_ – fucking Anna – occurred at the same time, followed by ‘wait no’ and ‘oh god’.

Clifford raised a brow, still looking rather impatient. “What is it?”

And of course, that impatience is because they just stopped in the middle of the hallway, while he was frantically looking for his brother, of course, that’s why he’s asking _like that_ , but-

‘Anna is wrong, I can’t be that-’

_‘-go and burn for all I care-‘_

‘-but what if I am?’

\- still, he pulls back, mortified by his own traitorous brain.

“Nothing.” he mumbles.

“What, do you _want_ to hold hands?” Clifford asks with a note of incredulity.

‘yes’

‘no’

‘oh god he _knows_ and he’s _disgusted’_

“No.” Wirt hisses, hoping that he’ll drop it. “Forget it.” He’s probably just making it more obvious, but he isn’t ready to think about this, so he does the next best thing.

He runs away.

Behind him, Clifford is calling after him, but his ears are rushing with blood and he’s certain he’s red as a tomato. Careless as he is while fleeing, he runs into a teacher – almost literally.

“Come on, kids.” The sigh is as exasperated as Wirt feels at the moment. “Get back downstairs to party, okay?”

Thankfully, the presence of the teacher halts any further conversation. Either that or Clifford just doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. As soon as they reach a floor they’re allowed to be on, Wirt splits off and rushes towards one of the bathrooms. He picks the first empty one and locks himself inside.

Now, in a _somewhat_ private place, he allows himself to panic.

‘What even is this?’ he worried his lip with his teeth. ‘And I don’t think badly of others for this, but I don’t even know where Clifford stands on this and-’

He’s having trouble breathing, there just isn’t enough oxygen in this little space. His vision is blurring, but he can’t tell what the reason is. When he rubs his hands over his face he’s almost relieved to find tears, because otherwise, he might actually be suffocating.

A door opens and he holds his breath, which seems to him like a magnanimous task.

“Listen, I’m sorry? I didn’t know-… I’m apparently an idiot about stuff like this. I didn’t know, I’m sorry and- I don’t know what you want me to say!”

Wirt doesn’t even know why the other is apologizing. He is the one who messed it all up.

“Just leave me alone.” He asks. It feels more like he’s trying to talk through a mouthful of water.

“Please don’t stay mad forever?” After that, a few footsteps followed by silence. Wirt allows himself to breathe again, each coming in shuddering and exiting his body as a sob.

He just couldn’t talk to the other boy right now.

Wirt just needed some time to figure this out on his own.


	14. Respect for the Deceased

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This one takes place in the middle of Chapter 48, which is being uploaded on the same day as this. I couldn't post this last Wednesday, because it would have had spoilers, and it felt wrong to do it next Wednesday because it's sorta irrelevant.
> 
> So, enjoy. Or not, depending on your stance on this.  
> POV is that of someone from our groups' school, but nobody who is likely to show up again. Basically Outsider POV.
> 
> Holly~♥

It really had been a relatively typical Tuesday morning. She had woken up – a little later than she would have liked – had not had time for a shower and simply tossed on some clothes and quickly ate some breakfast as she rushed off to her bus station.

At mornings like these, she became frustrated that the schools that were actually near her home were so awful that she had to count on a travel time of over an hour. But seeing as things were the way they were, she had a long train and bus ride ahead of her and plenty of phone and music time to fill the void of public transportation.

It really could have been a typical Tuesday morning. But upon leaving the train station to catch her bus – catch being an ill-fitting word, seeing as she would wait for it for fifteen minutes or so – she had to fight her way through a mob of people.

Shutting off the music she’d been listening to, she looked around to see what this was about.

It was a highly frequented station, sure, but not usually to this level.

“I can’t believe it-”

“Oh god, I’m gonna be sick, did you see her-”

“This is awful-”

“Please keep moving, there is nothing to see.”

“I feel awful for the person who found her.”

“I would feel sorry for her parents. It’s awful to outlive your child.”

She blanched. A corpse? And one young enough to be considered a child? For a moment, she almost debated to look herself, but then someone stumbled past her and out of the crowd and violent retching sounded from that direction.

This wasn’t good.  There was a crowd gathering around a dead body and any more curious passers-by would be drawn to it as most people are with these things, making it all worse. And that was not even accounting to keeping the dignity of the dead person – she could hear cameras going off and was sure they were not all from the police or press.

Therefore, she turned her music back up and kept walking, a sickness settling in her gut despite not having seen anything.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have a suspicion, you're most likely right.


	15. Dark Ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone!
> 
> No idea what happened here, nor why it happened in THIS PART of the story (Chapter 55 of Try Again), but it did. Some of you requested a look into the minds of several of our characters (and there are more detailed ones coming), and this is a little bit of that?  
> So, not just one POV in this one, but instead, well... SIX.   
> You'll know who's who.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it until the next chapter!  
> (I'm going to try writing up some more chapters for In Between)
> 
> OKAY HAVE FUN NOW BYE!
> 
> Holly~♥

When Dennis volunteered to take Greg along, Mabel felt a pull at her arm and beamed when Cordelia boldly exclaimed “Mine!”

She remembered this ride, which was a nice bit of familiarity to have after the completely foreign Mystery area. Mabel loved it as a child and she was sure she would love it now.

Also, the reminder that it was a Dark Ride had spooked Will – or Bill - a bit, so she took some slight sadistic pleasure from that. She was still _so torn_ about that situation, and it was so frustrating when Bill did something like earlier – because he had totally cheated! Will wouldn’t have even known from his short glance at the map that the ride entrance was there, much less how many people were in line – so it eased her confusion to see him fidget a little.

Even though it also made her feel guilty for enjoying what might be just Will’s discomfort. She shook her head as she took her seat in her and Cordelia’s carts, leaving the boys to sort out the rest of their arrangements.

“Is everything okay?” Cordelia asked. “Or did you want to ride with one of the others?” She worried her lower lip.

Mabel quickly shook her head and put a small smile on her face. “It’s fine, really!”

After their ride – it was as great as she remembered – she made sure to swiftly pull Cordelia aside and onto one of the decorative boulders near the exit for a kiss or two….or three or more.

Cordelia laughed when they paused to take a breather. “Are you trying to distract me?”

Damn. She caught onto her tactic.

“Noooooo…?” she tried, then spotted her chance to derail their conversation. “Hey guys!” she waved to Wirt and Clifford, who just left the ride hand in hand. As she eyed their linked hands, an idea sparked in her head and she beamed.

This was going to be great.

 

\--------------------------

 

“So…” He asked with a dubious look to Clifford as the cart lurched forward. “You sure you’ll be okay?”

Clifford made some high pitched noise when the went into the darkness, then said – or rather asked. “Maybe?”

“Y-you don’t sound too sure.” Wirt laughed nervously as their cart got pulled upwards. The last time at the fair, both brothers had freaked out badly, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that this hadn’t changed so much. Clifford might have just said yes as to not be left behind or something-

“Can I hold your hand?”

Had he heard that right?

His heart thundered in his throat as he asked for clarification. “What?” Then a hand found his and his stomach plummeted. No wait, that had just been the ride.

Right. The ride. Clifford was probably just scared again, there was no other reason for him to hold his hand, right? The wind whipping around them swallowed Wirt’s melancholy sigh.

He was ruining this friendship with all these feelings he’s been getting! And for a boy no less! He didn’t really share the viewpoint of people like Anna or his step-father, but he was uncertain of his mother's stance on…this stuff…and she might be likely to take Jonathan’s side in this as well as in many other things. Sometimes he wondered if Jonathan married his mom just to always have someone backing his corner. Other times, he wondered if she had always been this way and he just hadn’t realized it?

Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to risk outing himself to his parents. Not that there really was anything to come out about. This… this crush had been terrifying when he figured out what it was, but now that he’d come to accept it – more or less – all that was left was melancholy and a short, deep stabs of sadness.

He startled a little when the light hit them again. The ride was already over? “O-okay.” Wirt cleared his throat. He should….pull his hand away, shouldn’t he? But Clifford still wasn’t letting go… “So, no more dark rides I take it?” he tried again to get the other boys attention.

Now focused on Clifford, he noticed how pale the other was. He must have been really shook. A low hum was his only answer. When the cart slowed and the safety latches opened, Wirt helped his friend out of the cart, then – selfishly – kept a hold on his hand.

Clifford might fall. He seemed very unsteady. Yes.

“Do you have something to drink in your backpack?” Wirt asked in an attempt at conversation, even though he felt the other wouldn’t really reply.

“Hey guys!” Ahead of them, the two girls had settled down on some decorative boulder. He nodded at them, then helped Clifford settle down in the space Mabel cleared for him. “Holy moly! Clifford, you look like a ghost, are you okay?”

He pulled his hand from Clifford’s and started to rummage through his backpack. There. Natural progression. Nothing unusual here.

“Here.” He found the water bottle handed it to Clifford, only to have his hand grabbed as well.

Okay.

So.

How was he supposed to take _that_?!

 

\----------------------

 

He looked after his brother’s cart curiously. What was going on with him? Wirt hadn’t acted this weird for over a year now!

Greg bounced on his heels as he contemplated Wirt’s behaviour. If he wasn’t being so glum at home, he’d almost guess he found a new girlfriend. Sarah had been really mean to him when they started moving for dad’s job.

While Wirt had been busy being sad and locking himself in his new room, Greg had decided to keep a close eye on the girls around him. Maybe he had a crush on the pretty red-haired one, Cordelia, but was sad she didn’t like him back? He used to be the same kinda sad like he had been recently, back when he thought Sarah was with the human Jason Funderberker.

“You wanna go first?” he heard Dennis ask the other two remaining members of his brother’s friends, to which Dipper shook his head and started pushing both of them ahead.

“Greg is near exploding. He’s a lot like Mabel was at that age, I’ll swear he’ll get too hyped up for you to keep up if you don’t take this one.”

Dipper was nice, he’d helped Wirt be happy again when he was sad over Sarah. And when he had been over to their house, he’d always gotten along great with mom. Although not as much with his dad, for some reason. Still, he was good in Greg’s book.

He quickly followed after Dennis before overtaking the older boy and taking a seat in their cart. It was really funny, Dennis and Wirt and Clifford and Dipper were so much alike in some ways, they were all bound to be very good friends for sure!

This was going to be great!

 

\------------------

 

Dennis took a quick look at each of his friends. He kinda felt like he was the third – or more precisely seventh – wheel of their group. With Will and Dipper together, all he needed to do was give Clifford a metaphorical kick in the butt so his best friend would just _fucking_ _see, **please**_!

But until he could have a talk with Clifford about his blatant disregard to the cues Wirt kept sending – he might not even notice, they had been in a coma for a decade (which shouldn’t have worked out like this at all, he read several articles on comas and whatever was happening with his friends wasn’t normal at all)-

However.

Until he could have that chat, he might as well try to give them a couple pushes in the right direction. Which was why he offered to take Greg on the Dark Ride. Dennis watched as Cordelia latched herself onto Mabel’s arm with an exclamation of ‘Mine!’ and as the two girls and the couple-to-be ( _hopefully soon!_ ) got onto their rides.

At his side, the kid was bouncing with excitement, which was actually pretty charming. In general, he found Greg pretty good company for a ten-year-old.

“You wanna go first?” Dennis asked the one couple left, to which Dipper shook his head and started pushing the two ahead.

“Greg is near exploding. He’s a lot like Mabel was at that age, I’ll swear he’ll get too hyped up for you to keep up if you don’t take this one.” He explained, then their cart arrived and Greg was seated before Dennis even got started with climbing in.

 

\--------------------------

 

Once she and Mabel got into their cart, Cordelia caught a thoughtful frown on her girlfriend's face.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. “Or did you want to ride with one of the others?” She hadn’t meant to be presumptuous, she’d just figured they’d go together…

Mabel quickly shook her head and put a slightly forced smile on her face. “It’s fine, really!” she assured in a way that wasn’t reassuring to Cordelia at all.

‘Yeah sure, almost anyone who says ‘I’m fine’ often isn’t.’ she thought and kept her his eyes on Mabel until the darkness swallowed them. After their ride, she tried again but was intercepted by Mabel instigating a make-out session right after the ride.

She had done this before, Cordelia suddenly figured, so with a chuckle, she broke away from their kiss to ask.

“Are you trying to distract me?”

The look on her face said it all. “Noooooo…?”

Still, if that was her cue when she didn’t want to talk about something, Cordelia was fine taking it. So, she didn’t try again when she called for the boys over Cordelia’s shoulder.

 

\------------------------

 

“Mabel was like Greg?” Dipper smiled when he felt Will lean his head against him. Taking a moment to ponder the question, he hummed in thought. When he and Mabel were ten… A short laugh escaped him. “Yeah, I guess they were. I mean, mostly, they still are a lot alike in some ways.” When he thought about it, there were actually a lot of parallels between each pair of siblings in their group. “It’s-… kinda funny actually, when you think about it. Mabel always sees the positive side of things, just like Greg does, and Wirt and I are both pretty protective over our siblings. Just like Clifford gets with you.”

“So, Cordy and I fall into the same positive category, or what?” Will smirked in reply. “’Cause if that is the big distinction you see, then I don’t really feel like I’m on ‘your side’ of the group.” He made some quotations marks with his hands, then settled an arm around Dippers shoulder to pull him in for a peck on the cheek.

“No offence to your Debbie-Downer-Side.” Will grinned back at him mischievously and skipped ahead.

“We’re not ‘Debbie Downers’. We’re just careful.” He grumbled, feeling his ears go warm at the other’s antics.

Thankfully, he handled this ride better than the one they rode at the fair a few months back. Clifford had apparently been in bad shape right after getting off the ride, but he was doing better when they joined the rest of their group afterwards.

“You seem to be handling this a lot better than last time,” Dipper remarked as they were on their way to where the others would be waiting.

“Last time?” Will looked honestly confused.

“Uh, yeah, back at the fair?” It hadn’t been that long, had he already forgotten?

Will’s face went blank and Dipper saw his expression twitch in confusion, then a mild exasperation,  before he frowned.

“I don’t… really remember that part?” the answer to his question came as they drew closer to the others. “My-…DID kinda… acted up there at the end?”

Huh. Didn’t he say they always shared experiences or something? And that sounded more like a question than an actual answer, actually.

Dennis raised his head to give Will an exasperated glance. “That’s not-” He cut himself off with a whimper of some sort and buried his face in his hands. “-nevermind.” He shook his head.

…Perhaps: That’s not how DID works? Because that was what Dipper had thought when he looked up some help online on how to address people with DID. When he and Will had called their truce – he couldn’t believe he’d been such a jackass, to be so hostile for no reason other than his hyperactive paranoia, and an entire week long?! – Dipper had been worried about names, and if Will’s personality actually had one, or even just how to tell the difference.

“Oookay?” Will shrugged in reply to Dennis’ comment. “Yeah, anyway what I was trying to say was that you should take away from this that I in particular like dark rides, my other personality…not so much. I think. I wasn’t really there for that.”

Mostly though, it seemed the differences came in small things like this. Last week he’d found out that Will absolutely loves some ice tea with pine flavour – apparently, that was something that actually existed – and his other personality (still no name!) apparently just thought it was funny for some reason.

“Seriously?” He saw Mabel make a face that was stuck between amazed and utterly gleeful. “He’s scared of dark rides?” she chortled.

And then there were those times where his shoulders tilted back and down just a tad, when his jaw got a little more tense and he drew himself up in a way that made one realize just then that he’d been slouching a little before.

“I am _not. Scared_! I was _concerned_!” Will fixed Dipper’s sister with a stare – bordering on a glare - and pointed a finger at her. “It was _sudden_ and _unexpected_ , and when I _know_ what I’m getting myself into by getting into that cart, it’s _fine_!”

Those were the physical cues that told him his boyfriend’s backseat-personality was talking. And, more often than not, in a state ranging from exasperated to royally pissed. He wasn't quite sure about that side of Will yet, but it hadn't really been a big problem since that first day of the school year.

Then, Will slumped down again – not much, mind, but just that quarter of an inch that even makes it noticeable. “Sorry.” He shrugged.

“Well,” Clifford mumbled from the boulder, an almost empty water bottle dangling from his grip and a little green around the gills. “It’s great that you had fun.”

“Are you okay?” Will crouched down next to him.

But finding out more about someone was part of a relationship and he was glad that he actually got a chance to have one with someone who seemed as invested as he was in said relationship. Will was quirky, sure, and his DID made him pretty unpredictable and hot-headed at times, but Dipper trusted him.

And that was more than what he could have said of any of his past relationships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a clarification, if you're interested:
> 
> 1) Mabel really likes Will, and the only reasons she's not been making a big fuss about Bill is because a) our favourite dorito hasn't actually done anything bad, which confuses her, and b) because she is starting to see the slight difference between Will and Bill and is realising that Bill REALLY doesn't do much at all, which adds even more uncertainty to her confusion.
> 
> 2) And yes, Mabel is starting to ship Wirt and Clifford. However, Dennis saw it first, due to feeling himself become the only single guy in their group.
> 
> 3) Wirt, unlike Dipper, is not at all certain of his sexuality or the stance people around him have on LGBT (his family and Clifford especially) and with how pessimistic he was about his chances with Sara, I feel like he would be even worse with someone like Clifford, who has the emotional capacity of a piece of toast. It's making it very hard for Wirt to feel as though he could have a chance with him.
> 
> 4) Back when I started the outline for this fic, I tried to name Greg's dad. The moment the name Jonathan came to me I immediately started to dislike him. I'm sorry.
> 
> 5) Greg is a cinnamon roll and just wants everyone to be happy. He's also more observant than people give him credit for. 
> 
> 6) Dennis looked up DID, comas, all that good stuff. He KNOWS something is fishy, but also doesn't quite believe the twins are lying. Psychology didn't help him out there either, so he's just confused by both Clifford's and Will's problems. Dipper doesn't know was much as Dennis, but enough to be a little sceptical.
> 
> 7) Cordelia doesn't worry much, she gets as many details from Mabel about Bill as Will gets from Bill about his backstory(read: none). To her, it's all pretty cool, but harmless fun. 
> 
> 8) Dipper and Mabel have similar luck with relationships, sadly, which made them both a little more wary about opening up and causes them to often regard their twin's partners in a more cautious and hostile fashion (which is why Dipper isn't very surprised by Mabels occasional stand-offishness towards Will. He isn't quite happy about Cordelia either, but he perfected that 'hate someone silently'-technique he started with Robbie.)
> 
> 9) And Dipper is good at figuring stuff out, he got the cues of Bill being in charge down, even if he has no idea who it really is. (Yet, of course >:D)
> 
> Thank you for reading this bucketload of background info! This is all for now, I will eventually give them each a chapter to discuss their stance on current events, though!
> 
> Have a nice week!


End file.
